Happiness Happens: Puppies, Flowers & Favourite Places
September 25 2024,
One beautiful day in July, our team from Volvo Cars Saskatoon set out on a mission to find out what makes people happy and sprinkle in our own blend of feel-good moments in partnership with Black Fox Farm and Distillery, Saskatoon Dog Rescue and some of our favourite places with our favourite drinks and snacks. Some of Volvo’s brand pillars helped shape this idea and bring life to our plan.
Volo & Sustainability
Sustainability is one of our leading brand pillars as we continue to grow, learn and manufacture cars on this planet we’d like to care for and preserve. Being connected to nature and taking inspiration from the beauty of our environment has helped us create sustainable materials in the production of Volvo vehicles. Black Fox Farm and Distillery cultivates the most beautiful flower gardens and we knew we wanted to support a local business in our vision of making happiness happen in our community.
On the morning of the event we prepared a beautiful 2024 Volvo XC90 and picked up our film crew, Saul and Nova Creative, and our lovely spokesperson who shared her contagious smile and kindness with every person we met. With a car full of excitement we headed out to Black Fox Farm for a morning of picking flowers and bundling them into bouquets for random acts of kindness. Our plan was coming together and before we could even spread joy in our community, we were receiving so much joy just from carrying out this sweetest of sweet plans for our Happiness Happens initiative.
Volvo & Community
Community is an important brand pillar to us and we wanted to brainstorm ways we could make happiness happen for the city we love. Over the past year, we have offered free Puppies & Yoga events to bring our community together for some gooey serotonin sessions full of puppy cuddles and yoga. These have allowed us to connect with our community members and support our friends over at Saskatoon Dog Rescue. Due to the huge success of these events we knew we wanted to include Saskatoon Dog Rescue in our initiative, because puppies need some happiness, too.
There are so many wonderful cafes and restaurants in Saskatoon and we wanted to highlight a few of our favourites and give some pups a chance to meet some folks who may be looking for a furry loved one to join their family. We chose to visit D’Lish by Tish, Beppi’s Gelato, and Ctiy Perks Coffeehouse.
At D’Lish by Tish we had the absolute delight and joy to meet a group of women who were reuniting for the first time in many, many years. Two of the women from Canada had travelled to Columbia where they were acquainted with two sisters. All of them met for some hearty soup and treats with a visit that filled up our cups when we randomly presented them with flowers. After settling in for some lunch, we continued on with our flowers, stopping to surprise people as we made our way to the river for more conversations about what makes people happy.
As we headed into the depth of the afternoon, the heat of the sun had us clamouring for cool scoops of the best gelato in town at Beppi’s Gelato where we met up with our first foster family from Saskatoon Dog Rescue. The very dapper Onyx charmed everyone around as he politely and gracefully nibbled on his pup cone from one of the sweetest staff members. We are so happy to share that Onyx has since been adopted.
Following our cool treats, we made our way to City Perks Coffeehouse for some coffee, chats with staff, and conversations with patrons who shared with us what makes them happy. At City Perks we also met with our second foster family and we were introduced to the energetic, playful Casey who was a trooper outside in the blazing sun with her gorgeous, albeit seasonally inappropriate, fur coat. She was such a joy to be around and most certainly led the campaign to make Happiness Happen at our last stop of the day.
We are so grateful for our Saskatoon community, and for Volvo, a brand that sees the bigger picture and holds Community as an important pillar of their foundation and who they are. Thank you to Saskatoon Dog Rescue for sharing your wonderful pups and for your foster families who helped make this day amazing. To our favourite local spots serving up good food, good treats, and great community, we are so happy you’re here and helping to make all of us feel just a little more happiness when we walk through your doors.
