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Thursday, October 9, 2008

There's a story behind every fundraiser

posted by BOFarrell at 11h38

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The league's tournament team celebrates with Marc's baseball team.

I was sitting in a restaurant last night when a friend dropped by the table to say hello. She was with her son.

By the time the conversation was over, I had purchased a package of sucre à la crème and committed to dropping by their house on Saturday to buy two pumpkins. Both purchases were in support of the son’s hockey team’s fundraiser.

What is it about fundraisers?

Everyone is involved in one, somewhere, sometime. Chocolate bars, hockey teams, Terry Fox Runs, breast cancer research, brightly coloured bracelets. There seems to be no end to them.

And I’ll be honest: It all used to annoy the heck out me.
But not any more. Now, instead of asking: “How much?” I ask: “Why are you doing this?”
Two interesting facts are usually revealed in the answer.

The first is the so-called cause. Often times this is obvious, but it gets the conversation started.

The second fact usually is wrapped up in a story. And that, if you take the time to listen, is usually worth the price of whatever is being hawked.

It takes a lot of money to send a hockey team to an out-of-town tournament. But look at the expression on the face of the player when he or she tells you what it’s like to share that kind of bonding experience with the rest of their teammates.

A fundraiser is usually about a dream.

The other event that has contributed to my change of heart about fundraisers is having been involved in organizing one.

It’s a good feeling to do something positive, to help someone else, to be involved in an event that is, in the end, bigger than the sum of its parts.

Last month, my ball league, the St. Lazare Women’s Softball League, hosted its annual fundraising tournament. Every year, this organization picks a cause and sets to work to raise a respectable amount of cash.

For the past two years, the league has opted to support local causes. And this is where the magic seems to be. The dreams hit close to home.

It’s an amazing feeling to be involved in an effort that gets the word out about a real, tangible need and watch how an entire community rallies to the cause.

This year, we raised money for the Marc Normandeau Foundation. The foundation was started by a 13-year-old St. Lazare boy who is fighting his second battle with leukemia.
Seeing firsthand what patients and their families in the oncology ward at the Montreal Children’s Hospital go through, he decided to raise money to purchase amenities to make their stays at the hospital a little more bearable.

There is no doubt that this is a good cause. But that is not the whole story of why we decided to support this effort.

The real reason is we learned about this kid, Marc Normandeau – what he has been through, what he’s going through and what he has had to miss out on. He can’t play hockey or baseball right now. He can’t hang out with his friends like he used to. He can’t go to school. Yet, he has a dream.

It was an honour and a privilege to help him realize that dream. When all the runs were counted, the last burger flipped and the last raffle ticket sold, the league raised $5,315 for the Marc Normandeau Foundation. Not a bad day’s work.

But now, a whole town knows this kid’s name, has heard his story and is a little richer because we are all inspired by his courage – and his smile.

To all the ladies in the league, feel good about what you were apart of.
To the Normandeau family, thank you for letting us be a part of Marc’s dream.

Brenda O'Farrell