King Township supports little Abby Eveson

April 8, 2015 · 0 Comments

By Angela Gismondi
The Township of King believes in Abby.
At the council meeting on March 23, the Township presented Eveson family with a cheque for $7,500, part of the proceeds from the “We believe in Abby” support raffle organized by Township staff earlier this year. A $5,000 cheque was also presented to the SickKids Foundation on behalf of the Eveson family, who reside in Schomberg.
Abby Eveson, her mom Becky, her father Craig, a King employee and volunteer firefighter, her brother Charlie, grandfather Brian Grubbe, King Township’s chief building official and Township staff were on hand for the cheque presentation.
Abby, now 22 months old, was born with multiple congenital heart defects and the biggest concern is the blood flow out of the heart to become oxygenated by the lungs. Her condition was evident at birth. Abby received her first open heart surgery within 16 hours of her birth, June 19, 2013 and spent a week in the Cardiac Critical Care Unit at Toronto’s SickKids Hospital. She had her third open heart surgery in Oct. 2014. She has spent most of her young life in and out of the hospital.
About 2,000 tickets were sold at $5 each. It was determined that the funds raised would be split between the Eveson family and the cardiac critical care unit of SickKids, the division that performed all of Abby’s surgeries. The raffle was a joint effort with the King City Lions Club. There was also $2,500 in donations received and the contributors requested that the funds be directed to the Eveson family.
The Evesons, their family and friends have been performing random acts of kindness to create positive energy for Abby on her journey to get better. Township CAO Susan Plamondon commended the family for their efforts during the presentation.
“What’s amazing is that notwithstanding their own circumstances, the Evesons find ways every day for random acts of kindness, whether it’s buying coffee for someone else or providing financial support for other families in need, as a way of building positive energy for their daughter,” said Plamondon. “I think they’re a pretty remarkable family and they deserve all the support this community can give them.”
Emotional dad Craig Eveson thanked everyone for their support.
“Thank you very much,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.”
Later that evening on the We believe in Abby Facebook page, the family posted a message.
“Thank you to King Township staff and the key staff who have taken on such a strong role to support our family and the belief in positive energy,” read the post. “Thank you to all the individuals that bought tickets to help support. I cannot begin to describe the feeling that all of the tickets were sold and people were still looking to purchase. All of those purchases led to this evening, our family being invited to King Township Council to help with our random acts of kindness and Abby … An emotional evening for us of thanks and gratitude – there are no words to describe the amazing community that this is.”
Becky is proposing to take some of the donated funds to create a “funday” for families. Becky’s vision is to have an event at a park with bouncy castles, clowns, etc. and the admission would be a donation to SickKids.
The Township would like to thank Tribute Homes, Carrying Place Golf and Country Club, The Birkshire Group and Raised Edge Embroidery for the generous donation of the raffle prizes. The raffle winners were:
Alex Pietrangelo Jersey – Margaret Theofanis; Anthony Peluso Jersey – Rob Scheinberg; Carrying Place foursome – Jennifer Caietta; Toronto Maple Leaf tickets – Koste Hristov.
For more information, visit the We believe in Abby Facebook page at www.facebook.com/webelieveinabby.