Gifts for Strangers, is a world-wide cause to spread kindness and goodwill around the world. The concept is as simple as it seems, we hand out gifts to random strangers.

We started Gifts for Strangers here in Toronto 3 years ago, last year 33 cities around the world joined us. This year we hope to improve that number, by spreading the movement to even more cities across the world.

One should never underestimate the power of kindness. Like a flame, kindness can spread from one person to another. Changing the world, as if by storm.

To get a better idea of how the event works, check out this video from one of the previous GFS: http://youtu.be/pNqFN5L5a6A

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JOIN US IN TORONTO:

When: December 21, 2013 at 1pm
Where: Nathan Phillips Square
What to bring: Gifts! (see below)
What we do: Give gifts to strangers!
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Why: It is common for us to become centered on spending money and time with the people we know and love during the holiday season. We’re going to ask you to switch that up, and to put some time into brightening a strangers day. Because not everyone has that family member or friend to go to during the holiday season.

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More information:

The event is pretty self explanatory, we ask you to either make gifts or buy affordable presents. Spend whatever you think is reasonable. The more important part, is thinking about what type of gift would make you smile, and bringing that to life. Then we’ll be giving these gifts to random strangers.

Your gifts could be something you create, like visual art, a poem, or a mix CD. Or a something you owned or purchased for relatively cheap, like a yo-yo, teddy bear, or a good book. Just remember, be creative, and make it personal!

Wrap each present individually! Along with each gift, we ask you to write a personal card. Write a heart-felt message. Something honest and open. And make sure to include “From one stranger to another, Happy Holidays”.

Make as many gifts as you like. And keep track of what is in each one. So that you can hand it out to the right age/gender/type of person.

Everyone is invited to participate in Improv In Toronto’s 7th Annual Subway Dance Party.

This is a silent dance party on the subway.

Please bring your OWN MUSIC on an ipod, mp3 player, walkman or what have you. NO BOOMBOXES (these are illegal on the subway)

When we get on the subway we will start dancing one by one, until the whole train is dancing (seemingly to no music).

Last years Subway Dance Party:

All the information you need is below. Please read it all so this can be pulled off without any problems!

Requirments For Participation:
1) Willing to dance on the subway
2) Pretend you don’t know what’s going on
3) If ANYONE asks you to stop, listen to them. Whether it be a group leader, ttc employee, or passenger.
4) Have fun

Details:
When: Saturday, June 29th at 3:00 pm, Sharp! (Over by around 5:00pm)
Directions: Queens Park - (Walk directly south from Museum Station until you reach a statue of a horseman on a hill).
Bring: Subway fare and a portable music player

How it works:
We will assemble by the Horseman Statue in Queens Park at 3 PM. Please be on time. Feel free to be early. After all participants have arrived we will be splitting everyone into groups. Each group will be getting on there own subway car.

Once ready, six groups (one group per car) at a time will head to their stated subway station. Do not talk to others once you enter the subway system. No one knows each other. You will then wait for a train to arrive going south, and all board your assigned cars (follow your team leader). We may let one train go before entering to make sure everyone is ready.

Sit in the car as you normally would. Put your headphones in, and get your music ready. From this point, you will have been told when to join in. We stagger the number of people joining the dance, so it builds in excitement, and looks like random strangers are joining it.

If anyone asks you why you’re dancing, tell them that “you just felt like joining in” or “you are on your way to a dance tryout” (or something along those lines, be original!). Please be considerate that other people are commuting. We’re trying to spice up their day, and give them something to laugh at, not annoy them.

We will exit the train at Eglinton Station. Pay attention so you don’t miss this stop. Upon arriving we’ll completely stop dancing and walk off the train like nothing happened. We will repeat the mission back going south. This time taking it all the way around the loop to Museum Station.

If you’d like to meet up and talk about the mission, we’ll meet back up at the ROM for more fun times, and dancing.

As always this is going to be a lot of fun, it’s exciting how many people participate every year. You may bring along friends, but make sure to invite them to this event, so they get a chance to read all of these instructions.

VOLUNTEERS
If you would like to volunteer as a group leader please email us at [email protected] - The help is truly appreciated.

In this day in age, it’s easy to have first impressions based off of someone else’s physical appearance. The way they look, the way they carry themselves, the way they dress, we’re a society based around this norm.

And at Improv in Toronto, we always like to push these social norms, just to see what will happen.

On a beautiful April weekend, we gathered up willing participants in a park, sat them across each other at a nice patio set and allowed them to just talk… the only the catch was, they couldn’t see each other.

Like most first date, our participants struggled to come up initial topics of conversation. Small talks, such as  the weather and what they were currently up to the moment before they got recruited for our little social experiment, were thrown around to get something started.

But as the “date” went on, the topics started to flow more freely, and connections started to be made.  By the end, each and every single participant was shocked to hear when we alerted them that they had thirty seconds left to go.

Curious observation, when we told the participants that they were free to leave, there was not a single person who did not want to look through the curtain to put a face to voice they have been mysteriously conversing with. We here at Improv in Toronto hope that one day, a pair of friends would have a great story to the question:

“So, how did you two meet?”

1. We Need The Pog - 109
2. Cinco - de - Mayo - 107
3. Soylent Green - 106
4. French Tim - 105
5. Bed Post Confetional - 104
6. Blue Man Group - 100.5
7. Team B.S - 100.5
8. The Bike Orphans - 100
9. Pecan Pie - 100
10. Platypur - 100
11. EngSci 1T5 - 99
12. Dreem Team - 99
13. Hangin’ Out - 99
14. Hawaiian Donkey Punch - 97
15. Team Work - 97
16. No Edge - 96.5
17. Wheres Waldo? - 96
18. Survivors of Alderaan - 96
19. Team Don’t Have a Cow, Man! - 95.5
20. Raccoons International - 95
21. Team Human Centipede - 95
22. Team Wedgies - 94
23. We Get Laid - 93
24. Lattar (Gangnam Style) - 93
25. Marans - 93
26. I’m With Eddy - 93
27. UWO - 93
28. DANGER ZONE - 92
29. Origami Pikachicks - 92
30. *No Team Name Given - 92
31. The Patriots - 92
32. Larva - 91
33. Team Name - 91
34. The Companions - 91
35. The ARC Team - 91
36. Flash Mobster - 91
37. KenJimmyPhilVanSusanDaniel - 90
38. Maple Syrup - 90
39. Rainbow Unicorns - 90
40. Swazy Express - 88
41. Minions - 88
42. Almost Asian Power Rangers - 86
43. Pink Backpack - 86
44. Pokemon - 86
45. Star Wars - 86
46. Prrrr Group - 86
47. Plaidinum - 85.5
48. Team Sparkles - 85
49. Supreme Leadur and the Dawgs - 85
50. Team Pokemon - 84
51. French Toast Mafia - 83.5
52. Iron Ring - 83
53. Is that a daikon? - 82
54. The Lost Frantics - 82
55. 24 Eyes - 81.5
56. Saurinawa - 81
57. Team Awesome Scavenger Peepz - 81
58. Josie and the Pussycats - 79.5
59. HOTRC - 79
60. Team Hodor - 79
61. ESA - 78
62. The Holiday Armadillos - 77
63. 52 - 77
64. The (Sc)Avengers - 76
65. Ponywin - 76
66. Snuggle Buddies Unite! - 75
67. May Fourth Be With You - 75
68. Team Won - 74
69. Team Sabotage - 74
70. Taste the Rainbow - 73
71. The Robin Liu Team! - 72
72. Bachelorette Bitches - 72
73. Wranglers Rudy - 72
74. The Frenchies - 71.5
75. Wild Cats meow - 71
76. The Janices - 70
77. The Upside-down Turtles - 68
78. Smurfs - 68
79. Team Chelsea - 67
80. Euro Trippers - 66
81. Literary Science on Film - 66
82. One Girls and 3 Guys - 65
83. Comma NOT - 63
84. Happy Birthday - 60
85. Urban Ninjas - 60
86. The Kimchees - 59
87. Djibouti Call - 59
88. Relishless - 57.5
89. Purple Cats - 57
90. Sirachaa - 57
91. Liam and Co. - 56
92. Copycorite - 56
93. Lazer Snakes - 55
94. Weissengruber - 52
95. Poker Face and Daisy - 50
96. Sc - Avengers - 50
97. The Green Lantern Team - 44
98. Crunchy Roll John - 42
99. Lord of the Prize - 39
100. Colombian Mafia - 38
101. The Six of Us - 37

*If your team name or scores appear to be incorrect please send us an email or comment below. We had to sort through 101 scores sheets, and not everyones writing is legible. We will sort it out.

Thanks again for participating!
For more events like this, join our mailing list along the right hand side.
#ITSCAVENGER

Just another day in the city, another ride on the subway. Every day, citizens of Toronto go through this thinking, so often that it’s no longer a conscious thought to them anymore. We spend such a huge amount of time on the subway, yet there’s pretty much nothing memorable about it at all. When you get off, it’s like you’ve lost time to the underground, time never to return.

And that’s why it’s one of our most favorite spots to work in.

This past Sunday, a curiously dressed group of individuals wheeling a cart boarded a Eastbound train onto the Bloor Line.

"May I offer you snack or a drink?"

It’s nothing new, we love the subway, and we want to make everybody’s experience on the subway be that much more enjoyable. Our mission was simple, transform the old every day nature of riding the subway into a luxury flight experience, making it more a comfortable, enjoyable, and eventful ride.

"There are several emergency exits on this vehicle"

… okay, and we might’ve had a little fun doing so.

Smiles all around!

Equipped with snacks, drinks and blankets, our sharp looking flight subway attendants and captain tended to the riders of this particular train. We went and offered these amenities to each of the riders, hopefully making this particular subway ride, a memorable one.

The complete Cabin Crew, showing off their supplies