When James Beaudry’s friends lost their North Ridge home to a fire this summer, the 21-year-old wanted to organize a fundraiser to help them.

“I sat down and talked with them and they were well taken care of afterwards,” Beaudry says. “So I figured, well, there’s going to be more than one fire in St. Albert, so why not be better prepared for the next one, and the next one, and so on and so forth?”

While his friends were lucky to have insurance and resources to help them recover from their devastating fire, some families aren’t as lucky, and Beaudry wants to make sure there are resources like food and clothing and toys available for fire victims who need them.

Beaudry is organizing “Share the Love,” a music event to raise funds and donations for the St. Albert Salvation Army. His goal is to raise $5,000.

Share the Love will take place at the St. Albert Community Hall at 17 Perron St. on Friday, Sept. 14. Comedian Justin Littlechild from Wetaskiwin will M.C. the evening featuring a special acoustic set by Pat Kordyback and Robb Chalifoux of Stereos – a top local band. The music line-up will also include Stronghearts from Edmonton and Beaudry and his band. He said another local band might take to the stage as well.

Mayor Crouse will be donning his auctioneer hat for a live auction featuring guitars, CDs, clothing and other merchandise.

Beaudry chose to donate the event proceeds to the Salvation Army because the organization is often the first to come to the assistance of fire victims. The money and donations raised through Share the Love will go specifically to helping local fire victims.

“We help out with things like initial clothing, food, whatever they need to get started because the majority of the time they lose a lot, pretty much everything,” said Pastor Peter Kim of the St. Albert Salvation Army. “We help them also with counseling and advice on what to do, next steps.”

Kim was on hand the night Beaudry’s friends lost their home.

“They came out there with just their pyjamas and bare feet so they really did have nothing and we were able to initially get them on their feet … just get some shoes on the people and clothes,” he said.

Beaudry’s concern for children who lose their homes to fire was one of the reasons he decided to organize the Share the Love event.

“Are they going to have toys? Are they going to have clothes? Are they going to be taken care of?” says Beaudry. “Obviously the parents are another concern, but kids just go through so much more when they lose everything and don’t know how to deal with it.”

Kim, who is also the chaplain of the St. Albert Fire Department, says that it’s pretty traumatic for children to go through a fire so the Salvation Army tries to be right there for them to help parents out.

“With children especially, we step in quite a bit because losing your toys is pretty traumatic,” Kim says. “For example this past fire, there was a three-year-old. He had nothing and he was asking mom ‘where’s my favourite such-and-such toy?’ But we helped him by getting toys to him directly right after the fire, so that he found a new toy that was his.”

Kim commends the 21-year-old Beaudry for giving back to the community with his Share the Love event.

“I think it’s amazing that a young person would take this on,” he says.

Tickets for Share the Love are available at the door, by emailing sharethelove12@gmail.com or calling 604-356-7715.

The cost is $15 without a donation or $10 with a donation of food, clothing or toy items. Children 7 to 13 are $5 and 6 and under are free.

Doors open at 7 p.m. and the entertainment gets underway at 8 p.m.

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