A line-up of all-stars is coming out to help raise awareness for a children’s charitable organization.
For the second year, the Big Brothers Big Sisters All-Stars for Kids campaign is running through the month of August to fundraise for the organization and draw attention to the importance of mentoring and putting positive role models in children’s lives.
“It’s really the time we can be really loud about mentoring, about the impact mentoring has on the children and youth we serve as well as on the larger community,” said Rocky Hynes, manager of communications and marketing for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Calgary and Area.
He said the fundraising campaign is important as the dollars raised are critical to all programs to run in Calgary and surrounding communities, including Okotoks. The money raised goes into every program run in the region, he said.
Every donation to the organization through August will be matched up to $100,000 by funds provided by major sponsors Gary Nissen and Qualico, who each contributed $50,000, he said.
“So the donations are doubled and people can feel as though their impact is doubled as well,” said Hynes.
The “All-Stars for Kids” include sports icons like Bo Levi Mitchell of the Calgary Stampeders, Sean Monahan of the Calgary Flames, Olympic wrestler Jasmine Mian and Olympic gold medal curler John Morris, he said.
“They’re really the spokespeople for the campaign, getting out there in the public and being as loud as possible,” said Hynes. “Some of them are actually mentors themselves, they’ve been involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters for a while, so they’re really the voice of the mentoring and using their profile to increase awareness.”
A number of businesses, including The George in Okotoks, are also coming on board to host events or promotions with proceeds going toward Big Brothers Big Sisters, he said.
Mark Frank, owner of The George, said he was approached by Big Brothers Big Sisters last year and decided to run a promotion to help raise money. For every pint of beer sold during August, The George will donate 25 cents to Big Brothers Big Sisters. Last year the total was in the neighbourhood of $1,500, he said.
He’s running the same fundraising promotion this year.
“It’s our responsibility as a citizen to help the community, and The George offers a venue where we can help,” said Frank. “We all grew up and we all used something in our time and it’s our obligation to help out. Everybody needs to help out, and especially when it stays in Okotoks it’s even more beneficial to us. That’s a key.”
Hynes said every little bit helps, as the campaign has become the organization’s largest fundraising event of the year. The money is more needed than people realize, he said.
“A lot of people may not realize we actually depend on donations in order to be able to run our programs,” said Hynes. “We are not government-funded.”
He said there are a few grants that the organization can tap into, but most of the budget is made up of donations from the public.
Last year the All-Stars for Kids campaign brought in $233,000. This year Hynes wants to break that number.
“Our goal is to raise $200,000 but we’d love to surpass that goal again this year because the more funds we raise, the more kids we’re able to help,” said Hynes.
