By Joseph Chin
MISSISSAUGA — Sometimes time just flies by when you’re engaged in a labour of love.
Claire Browne was in Grade 8 at Mississauga’s Green Glade Senior Public School when she organized a fundraiser for Sleeping Children Around the World, an organization that donates bed kits to children in underdeveloped countries.
Now in her fourth year at McMaster University, she’s still at it.
On Dec. 11 she and her brother Adrian, in his second year at the University of Guelph, will take time off from their studies to help host the annual Holiday Cheer to benefit SCAW.
It takes place at The Erin Mills Pump, 1900 Dundas St. W., starting at 7 p.m. Everyone is invited.
Holiday Cheer was started by the siblings’ parents – Jim and Lisa Browne – 13 years ago as a holiday get-together with neighbours and friends (hence the name Holiday Cheer). While they were at it they passed around the hat and donated the money to a worthy cause.
The Brownes also organized other fundraising initiatives.
“The first two years my family and I had toy drives to aid an emergency women’s shelter in Mississauga. The third year we collected toys for the oncology department at Rouge Valley Hospital,” said Jim.
Then his wife, a longtime teacher at the Peel school board, heard about SCAW from her principal.
Since its founding by Murray and Margaret Dryden (parents of NHLers Dave and Ken Dryden) in 1970, the Etobicoke-based charitable organization has raised more than $23 million to provide bedkits for children in underdeveloped and developing countries. Each kit, which costs $35 to put together, contains a mat, pillow, sheet, blanket, clothing, towel, school supplies and a mosquito net, if needed. In 2009 it reached its millionth child.
“When Lisa talked to me and our children about this organization, we knew that we had to get involved,” said Browne. “By raising kits for these children, we are giving them hope for a better life and a good night’s sleep.”
In the nine years to date, the Sherwood Forrest family has raised funds for more than 1,800 kits. The kits, he noted, go a long way because they can benefit the entire family and a lot of the stuff can be handed down to younger children.
Holiday Cheer will be around for a long time.
“We have always imparted on our children for them to get a good education because an education gives you options,” Browne said. “When Lisa and I are no longer able to carry on this event, I have the utmost confidence in my children that they will carry this tradition on.”
