Saturday April 24th was the date of a great fundraiser event that I had the privilege of assisting at in Burlington. SWEET CHEEKS is the name of a local bicycling team of 19 riders who are training hard and fundraising hard in order to participate in "The Ride to Conquer Cancer" for the Princess Margaret Hospital. Most of these riders are not long-distance riders - in fact, at least one didn't even own a bike - and yet they are all committed to riding the 200km from Toronto to Niagara Falls on June 12-13. Each rider is required to raise a minimum of $2500 in order to participate in the ride. That's a LOT of cash!!
And so, to help the team raise funds, they held a dinner/silent auction event. Approximately 125 people attended the event at St. Luke's beautiful church hall, which was all decked out in black & yellow, the colours of the ride. Gorgeous floral centerpieces were designed by Tracy of Lux Living.
There were well over 100 items donated for the silent auction and several great items were sold off through a fun live. Rick James, local musician & DJ, provided great musical entertainment throughout the whole evening. A delicious meal was provided by Gator Ted's Restaurant. An adorable cake was provided by Linda Jenner and delicious brownies from Jitterbug Java Cafe.
There were two unique features at this event. One was that all the riders brought their bikes to have on display - and attached to the handlebars was the rider's photo and a brief bio about why they are doing the ride. The other feature that was a focal point during the evening was a "tree of hope & memory". It was a white branch tree, lit by a spot light - and people filled out tags to hang on the tree. Yellow tags were for the names of people who have cancer or who have survived cancer. Black tags were for names of people who have passed on from this disease. It was a very visual and impactful image.
The event cleared just over $8000 for the riders - Congratulations Krista & team members for a job well done! And all the best in raising the rest of the funds needed to do the ride.
For more information about the ride, how to donate or how to be a volunteer, check their website: http://to10.conquercancer.ca/site/PageServer?pagename=to10_homepage
