Tomorrow's Autorama will surely bring out the sun, the classic car enthusiasts, and probably a few mosquitoes too. What's more, it'll help St. Albert Stop Abuse in Families raise its bottom line with some much-needed fundraising for its programs.
The 25th annual event, hosted as always by the St. Albert Cruisers classic car club, always brings out the young and the old alike to admire the beauty and thrill at the rumbles of some decades-past prime engines that are still going strong. The Cruisers, being old timers themselves, still have a lot of heart too.
Caroline Smigielski, SAIF's interim executive director, said that she's very grateful for their help in supporting the Elder Abuse Response program. She started working with the organization as the co-ordinator of that program three years ago.
"We are seeing a big increase in older adults reporting abuse themselves. When we first started getting reports, it was almost always from somebody who knew about the situation but it wasn't from the older adults themselves," she said. "That's, I think, a big increase in awareness."
She noted that SAIF received 76 cases of elder abuse in 2016, the majority of which are financial in nature, although each case of abuse usually involves psychological, emotional and physical forms as well.
"Financial and emotional abuse together are pretty common."
Autorama typically provides approximately $5,000 in funding each year to SAIF. Smigielski said that she's also very thankful for the awareness that it brings to these serious issues.
"For all the people who know about it, there are still people who don't know that there are places you can go for help."
It runs tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Fountain Tire and Drayden Insurance at the high south end of Green Grove Drive. There will be classic cars and trucks, with hot rods and motorcycles too.
There will be more than 25 registration draws and loaded registration bags for the first 200 registrants. The registration fee is $20. Attendees can also enter the new photography contest. As well, there's a hula hoop contest at 11 a.m. plus there will be a lineup of great food trucks. Attendance is free.
Class shows how being charitable is elementary
Dolores Andressen's Grade 2/3 split class at Bertha Kennedy Elementary got a gold star and a hot lesson in community service, thanks to a unique idea that merged fundraising, a service organization and one of the country's favourite coupon programs.
"We collected Canadian Tire money," she said. "We just asked the community to bring it in from home. We got it from grandmothers … from aunts and uncles. We put it in our newsletter and people would send in their money."
They ended up with $138.55 in non-legal tender bills, enough for them to purchase two sale-priced microwave ovens that they then gifted to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. The local chapter of the international Catholic charitable organization offers furniture and household items, clothes, bus tickets, and more to people in need.
"It was really good for the kids to see the actual purchasing of it, because it's one thing to collect the money and then just send it off but it was really good for them to take part in that," she said.
"There are so many people that are out there – single people or couples or elderly people – and they don't have a way to cook. They may not have a stove. In their room or rooming house or whatever, there isn't any way for them to cook something, so they're purchasing fast food or they're eating food that can be just eaten cold. Here is their chance to make it a little 'home-ier' by being able to cook something up."
This is the second year that the class has embarked on such an effort. Andressen's class already has "seed money" to tackle another one next year too.
"It's really important, I think, to do social justice projects like this because it helps the children to see that there's more to the world than just their little world that they're in. It helps them to be more empathetic and appreciative of the things that they have."
After their shopping trip, the class skipped across the parking lot to pay a visit to the St. Albert Food Bank. Each student brought in a donation of a can of non-perishable food for that organization.
