Abby family day raises more than $15Gs for charity

July 12, 2016 · 0 Comments

By Mark Pavilons
The annual “We Belive in Abby Family Day” continues to give back.
The event, held June 18 at Hickstead Park in Schomberg, raised $10,965.65 – all in a four-hour event!
According to Becky Eveson, they will be donating $9365.65 to SickKids foundation. The “Cardiac Kids BBQ” was able to raise $1,600 for their organization.
A local farm showed their support with a $5,000 donation, making the total donated to SickKids a whopping $15,000!
Colbrook Farms named one of the race horses after Abby. The horse, Abby Grace, won its first race July 1 at Woodbine Race Track, ridden by S. Ryan.
“Amazing, is all I can say,” Eveson said of all the support. “It made me not just look at the monetary goal but also to look at the other goal – that this event has which is to bring a community together to spend time with their families as well to create positive energy.
“This goal was reached on so many different levels. We had a member of our community donate all her money from pre-sales of her Stella and Dot commissions, her commissions at the event, as a yard sale which donated all of the earnings to our event. We had three little girls hold a bake sale and donate the money they had made. We had other vendors from the event pay for a table and then donate their commissions.”
Eveson said “endless support” from our community included raffle prizes and companies donating endless amount of volunteer time. The planning committee worked many hours to put together the event. Volunteers the day of the event helping make the day run smoothly. They also had tickets for the Tragically Hip donated to support their efforts, something Eveson observed was “not an easy thing to give up.” And it happened a second time when a person who desperately wanted to go to the show auctioned them off on-site to raise more money for the event. The Hip tickets alone helped to bring in $2,500.
Eveson pointed out the Hip tour is to help raise money for the Gord Downie Fund for Brain Cancer Research at Sunnybrook and they will be donating in Susan and Greg Porter’s name as a thank you for the donation of the tickets and to make a full circle. She’s hoping this will bring some positive energy to some of the committee members who are affected by cancer right now.
“After all of these thoughts and all of these goals met it is very easy to see that this event is not one family, not one committee. It is a community. It is a community coming together and reaching some incredible goals. Thank you to each and every person who participated in this event!”
Eveson extended a special thank you to Lisa Pace Photography for the pictures from the event, and to Icing Smiles Canada for accepting Abby and Charlie into their cake program for critically ill children and siblings. They also connected the Evesons with the talented Sugar Mammas Cakery for their amazing cake. Thanks also go out to Little Lush Boutiques for Charlie’s and Abby’s special birthday outfits.
“Thank you to all our amazing sponsors who made this event possible! As well to all the organizations that donated their time and raffle prizes. We could not have done this without all of you.”