We did it. I mean, you did it. The Sun Christmas Fund has gone over $100,000 for the first time — and then some. To be exact, $117,124.
That cheer you hear comes from the kids, and kids grown up, of Variety Village.
“Wow! That’s a lot of money!” says Madison “Madi” Ambos, 8, my campaign co-chair. “This is amazing news,” she writes, “because it will help me and my friends continue activities like rock climbing, going to summer camp, swimming and Volt hockey.
“Thank you to all the readers for being so generous this Christmas.”
Zach Rayment sends his thanks, too. Zach, who just turned 13, and Madi both have cerebral palsy.
Madi had surgery in 2017 and took her first halting steps later that year. Zach had a different operation last spring and is now walking unaided — two or three steps at a go — for the first time in his life.
Both are Variety Village icons — if kids can be icons — and “ambassadors” of that magnificent sports centre in Scarborough tailored to people with disabilities, especially children.
Donations go straight to the Village, as do proceeds from my new book, SMALL MIRACLES — The Inspiring Kids of Variety Village (to order, see sunchristmasfund.ca or mikestrobel.ca)
The honour roll of donors includes the neighbours of Thelma Smith, of Scarborough, who died Dec. 6 at age 68. They passed the hat in her honour and sent $390 to the Christmas Fund. “Thelma would have appreciated that,” says neighbour Jeanette Salmon. “She always gave to charities and was thoughtful to everyone, even bringing something for children on our street at Christmas. She was a good, good person.”
Donors also included this paper and its alumni, who put out a SUN50 anniversary supplement and donated the proceeds, $10,800, to the fund. (Advertisers included Bad Boy, Delivery Ink, Goodmans, Graphic Transportation, Irving, Kruger, McDonald’s, Port Hawkesbury Paper, Veritiv and Sun Chemical.)
Other donors ranged from Toronto Maple Leafs voice Joe Bowen to CIBC to my sister-in-law Karen from Winnipeg.
The Christmas Fund has now totalled $1.7 million over the decades, and this year’s record take is especially timely. COVID has hit Variety — and people with disabilities everywhere — harder than most.
So, before I slink back up to my retirement cabin on Manitoulin Island, let me thank the kids — and kids grown up— we profiled, and the Sun news staff, Postmedia’s marketing team, and the Village elves, notably Erin Rivet, Chris Yaccato and Judy Black.
Mostly, let me thank you readers who donated to the fund or bought books and rooted for these kids.
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