Tania Woodbeck hopes to raise enough money to fulfil the dreams of three sick Comox Valley children.
Woodbeck is co-organizing a fundraising auction Saturday evening at Flying Canoe West Coast Pub. Funds raised will go toward making the children’s dreams come true and will provide financial assistance to their families, via the Help Fill A Dream Foundation.
“I hope to have a fantastic turnout,” says Woodbeck, noting all proceeds will go to the three Comox Valley children and their families. “That’s what makes it so special, and I think that’s what helps people be so open to supporting it, because we can see where the money’s going.”
Three-year-old Nikko has severe chronic lung disease, and the Courtenay boy’s dream is to go to Hawaii with his family. Anna, nine, from Cumberland, has metastatic renal cell carcinoma, and funds raised will go toward making ‘Anna’s Island Adventure’ happen. Funds raised for five-year-old Linden will help her and her family with travel as they go to BC Children’s Hospital for treatment of high-risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Linden will receive a dream once she is ready for it, a future dream.
A wide variety of auction items will be available to bid on, thanks to many Comox Valley businesses, according to Woodbeck, who notes just a few include: a barbecue from Home Depot, a Palliser chair from Merit Home Furniture, a night’s stay and hydropath for two at the Kingfisher Oceanside Resort & Spa, a leather jacket from Jack’s Motorcycles, gift certificates from Tayco Paving Company, Weed Man and Leighton Contracting and golf rounds at Crown Isle, Sunnydale and Longlands golf courses.
“We have something for everyone. We have smaller ticket items, and the bigger ticket items,” says Woodbeck. “If you have a smaller budget, that’s OK, you can still come out and participate.”
Woodbeck says she’s blown away by Valley businesses’ generosity in donating items to the auction, especially considering the number of fundraisers they are asked to help support.
“I am overwhelmed,” she says. “The businesses in this Valley — their support is outstanding. It’s just phenomenal.”
Attendees are encouraged to show up to Flying Canoe West Coast Pub at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, May 31, so they can check out the items available, register and have some dinner before the auction begins at 7 p.m. Admission is free and there is no need to pre-register. Jean Rowe of Auction House Vancouver Island will donate her services as auctioneer for the evening.
Woodbeck and her husband Wayne organized Help Fill A Dream Foundation fundraisers in the Valley before, annually from 1999 to 2003. Then their lives became busier when they had a baby and they had to step back. Now their son is seven and they have more time, so they decided to start fundraising for the foundation again — this time, with help from their business partners Jason and Jennifer Borth, with whom they co-own Fix Auto Courtenay (Georgia Straight Collision & Towing).
Help Fill a Dream Foundation is a Vancouver Island charitable organization, based in Victoria, which helps fulfil the dreams of Vancouver Island children under the age of 19, suffering from life-threatening diseases.
Since its inception in 1986, Help Fill a Dream Foundation has helped in excess of 2,000 sick children.
The foundation was the vision of founder Rick Thomas, a bus driver in Victoria, who was so touched by a sick passenger’s wish to visit her grandmother in Nova Scotia, that he set out a plan to make it happen. The Help Fill a Dream Foundation was formed less than a year later.
For more information on the auction, visit the Facebook event page, Help Fill A Dream Foundation Auction. For more information about the foundation, visit www.helpfilladream.com/.
writer@comoxvalleyrecord.com
