What a difference a week makes. Last Wednesday, the Gazette reported that an Edmonton charity’s recent fundraising event turned sour when a St. Albert company promised to donate a new iPad but then reneged on the deal.
Local reader Jennifer Hutman read the story about the Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Society’s (HBOC) struggle and had an immediate reaction of anger.
“I was kinda pissed,” she admitted. “I was just mad. It’s just terrible that someone would promise something like that and then go back on their word.”
She added that it looks bad for the HBOC too since they promised that prize to one of their donors.
“It’s an organization that doesn’t need something negative. They’re trying to do something positive for people who are affected by those two types of cancer. Just having that negative shadow on it … they don’t deserve it.”
She already knew of the work that it strives to achieve in the community.
“I know them and donate to them, and so does my family. I know of what good support that they can provide to people going through [cancer diagnoses and treatment],” she explained.
“When I saw the story, it just hit close to home. I know how important the support and information you can get from those kinds of organizations is and how hard it is to fund-raise especially in these economic times.”
With a sense of justice on her mind, she decided to take matters into her own hands. Hutman emphasized that she was willing to pay out of pocket to satisfy the situation, despite having a tight financial balance sheet at home too.
She approached Doug Webster, the manager of the St. Albert branch of Staples. With a brief explanation of the situation, he felt much the same as she did and it just so happened that there was an iPad on the store’s shelves, too.
Last Friday, Hutman was able to deliver the item to the HBOC personally. Society president Gayla Zahacy was there to greet her, obviously very grateful for the kindness of strangers.
“That was incredibly exciting,” Zahacy stated. She said that she showed up at the office on Thursday she had to listen to several messages that a very excited Hutman left, explaining all of the thoughts, feelings and actions that transpired between reading the article and talking to Webster.
“There’s a million worthy causes out there, and they’re all fighting for a little piece of the pie. We are all trying so hard to get a little bit of money to help out as many people as we can.”
To have someone like Hutman react and act so immediately and decisively was a major boost.
“It’s nice to renew our faith in humanity. It’s nice to have something like this bounce us back out.”
