Hundreds of residents came together on Oct. 5 and raised almost $60,000 at the first annual Autism Awareness Fundraiser, which was held at the Bonnyville Curling Club.
The event consisted of a dinner and dance along with live and silent auctions and a performance by local band the Opry Boyz.
“In Bonnyville I have learned that you are just thankful for the bids that come in and you never have to worry about bargains here because people are supporting a good cause,” said organizer Gary Mostert. “We are just thankful for that. It is an amazing, amazing place to live and to do stuff for a bigger cause.”
They event capped off a long journey for Mostert, which saw him partake in a 16-day cross-province bicycle tour from Cold Lake to Vancouver in September.
Mostert, the creator of Rednecks with a Cause, was able to raise just under $46,000 during his journey, which he said went really well.
“I had one flat tire on the second day of the bike ride and I had one flat tire on day 13,” said Mostert. “Other than that we had no trouble. We had a lot of friendly receptions, all our hotel rooms were compensated, and almost all of our meals were compensated. It was just a blessing to be able to do it because then all of the money we raised could go to the charity.”
Mostert was initially hoping to raise around $250,000 on his cross-province bicycle ride, but was happy with what he was able to raise.
“We have a lot to learn on how to do more fundraising along the way. We did have two events along the way that went really well, but we live and learn from it. We will hope to raise more than that next time,” said Mostert.
He plans to do the same ride again next year and says this time he will have Frank Viti, the President and CEO of Autism Speaks Canada joining him on the journey.
Mostert says the money raised from both events will stay in the community and go towards helping locals dealing with autism.
“All of the money that was raised is going to stay in Bonnyville until we figure out how we are going to do the funding of treatment or the funding of a center,” said Mostert. “The end goal is to see how much we have raise and see what we can do with it. See how we can make life easier for the families we know in the area.”
Mostert has been trying to reach out to the families in Bonnyville and surrounding area to try and gage just how big the autism community is in the region.
“We really need to get the parents that have kids who are diagnosed with autism to contact us because the government is not allowed to give us their names. We would like to learn how big this community is,” said Mostert. “Rednecks with a Cause is on Facebook, it is a page people can like. They can message us there.”