Lonely woman who moved to Toronto starts website to make friends
If you live in Toronto, are a bit lonely, and are looking to make a new friend, look no further than BeMyFriend.ca.
This adorable website was created by Amy Creyer, a creative director who was transferred from her job at Momentum Worldwide's Chicago office to the network's Toronto office back in December.
Creyer, who is married to junior strategist at Thinkingbox Ben Percifield, was eager to discover the city and the people, she told The Message, and although she had co-workers who were showing her around, things got difficult when the pandemic hit in March.
"It’s exceptionally hard to meet new people when you’ve just relocated during a pandemic," she said.
After making no real friends in her first 10 months in the city, Creyer took to social media and started posting messages to the Toronto Ad Jobs & Networking Facebook group in October, as a "shameless plug for virtual coffee dates to make new friends with folks in Canadian Ad-land."
The post received a shocking 164 comments from advertising and marketing professionals. The end result? A thank-you video and a creative website called BeMyFriend.ca.
"Combine living in a new place with social isolation and boom! Recipe for loneliness," she explains on the website's homepage, adding that she woke up one day to realize that she only had one friend in Toronto outside of her agency.
"This website is my exploration of making new friends in a new place in the new pandemic reality. So whether you're a lifelong Torontonian, or a brand-new immigrant like me, I'd love to get to know you. I'm sure other people would love to get to know you too."
Besides explaining her story, there is a form at the bottom of the homepage where people can leave their contact information and a message for Creyer if they wish to be friends.
To prove this has actually been working, Creyer also included some photos of the friends she's made so far.
If you want to make friends in a new city during a global pandemic, you got to get creative!
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