The Lansdowne Children’s Centre Foundation announced that it officially surpassed its $50,000 fundraising goal during the sixth annual Heroes Walk and Roll, held at the Brant Park Conservation Area, on Saturday, October 5, 2024.
Candace Kingyens, Senior Development Officer for the foundation and organizer of the event, said that funds raised through the event will go towards helping to support Lansdowne Children’s Centre’s greatest needs.
“That could be camps and recreation, it could be a new piece of equipment and soon, I’m sure we’ll be raising money for a new building,” she said. “It’s just a feel-good day where the community, our clients and families come together to celebrate the successes of our children and youth with special needs.”
Throughout the event, over 100 people including superhero characters Spider-Man, Captain America, and Wonder Woman, spent the afternoon exploring a host of activities such as carnival games and inflatable attractions, a live animal show and a magician, face painting and balloon animals, and live performances from local musician Chris Strei.
Before heading off on the one-kilometre walk and roll around the grounds of the park, local dignitaries, Will Bouma, MPP for Brantford-Brant, and Kevin Davis, Mayor for the City of Brantford, as well as Lansdowne staff, took the opportunity to thank the crowd for their support.
“We just wanted to thank everybody for coming and we also wanted to just take a moment and remember Dave Neely, who was a very, very passionate volunteer with Lansdowne Children’s Centre and who started this walk,” said Jennifer White, Executive Director of the foundation. “We’re so grateful to his legacy for being able to continue this walk, and so grateful for all of you coming here. The weather couldn’t be more perfect and the excitement from all of you and your families couldn’t be more wonderful so thank you so much for joining us.”
Laura Gatopoulos, the mother of this year’s walk ambassador, eight-year-old Jack Gatopoulos, also had the chance to speak about the impact the centre has made on her son’s life.
“When you have a neurodivergent child with special needs, you’re not really sure what steps you need to take but you know that you need to do something and we just knew that we needed some more help for Jack to succeed and to thrive. While we didn’t get a diagnosis for him right away, I could see that he wasn’t quite meeting his milestones and because of Lansdowne, we were able to get that help when he was about three months old,” she said. “They got him a feeding team, he got support for moving so he could roll over, sit up and start walking, we were also able to get speech therapists to teach him to talk so he could communicate with us and it was just overwhelming how much support they gave us. …There’s so many experiences that he’s had and so many skills that he’s developed because Lansdowne was there to support, to guide and to help us to take him further.”
Towards the end of the event, Kingyens announced that with the help of the community, the foundation was able to just surpass this year’s fundraising goal.
“I feel like one of the parts of my job is to announce the final total,” she said. “In the past few years of our Heroes Walk and Roll we’ve come so, so close to making our goal and I’m really pleased to say that we had a goal of $50,000 and… I’m not crying, you’re crying… we are now just over $50,000. We did it and you are all amazing, thank you.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
