On October 3rd, multiple SHOW community members – including board members, staff, and donors – came together to participate in Ride for Refuge to fundraise for our SHOW the Way Home campaign. We are proud to announce that we surpassed our goal and raised $20,250! And we owe it to supporters, like you.
This was SHOW’s third year participating in Ride for Refuge, which is an organization, and day where Canadians participate in this family friendly fundraiser. Each year it is done to show solidarity for those who are “displaced, exploited, persecuted, and abused”; which aligns with SHOW’s mission and beliefs. This year, SHOW was raising money in order to support our new capital campaign for affordable housing for seniors at 144 Erb St. E. Through the help of our supporters, we raised more than we set out to through Ride for our tenants.
This year, all of our SHOW teams were unable to participate together at a large Ride event; however, that did not stop the six SHOW teams (including 27 participants) from doing their own mini events. Some participants took advantage of the good weather to bike, while others choose to walk and actually visit our senior tenants at 144! Our Executive Director’s team, The SHOW Offs, walked from our SHOW building at 362 to our seniors building at 144 so her team of staff and board members could visit with our tenants and see what, and whom, they were walking for.
Some of the SHOW teams went beyond the pledge requirements and truly dedicated themselves to the cause. Each participant on the VeloDrones team biked 50km on Ride day! And you may remember Vidhi from our last blog, who had pledged to walk 35km for Ride over the course of a week. On Ride day, she chose to go beyond her pledged and walked an extra 20km!
“During my daily 5km during Ride for Refuge week, I walked through all types of weather, including the pouring rain. For me it was an inconvenience of an hour, but I soon realized that for many in our community being in the rain for more than a few hours is their reality and living situation. It reminded me why I support SHOW and why I was participating in Ride for Refuge: to work towards making sure everyone in our community has shelter from the storm.” – Vidhi Thakkar, Team “SHOW Me the Money”
There are so many thanks we have to give for making our Ride for Refuge event a success. First, we could not have achieved what we did without our fundraising teams coordinating SHOW’s Ride Day opportunities and events. Second, without the pledges and work of our SHOW team captains and participants, our Ride event would not have come to life and we cannot thank them enough for their participation. Lastly, and most importantly, we would like to thank our supporters, like you, for donating to our teams and our campaign for 144. Without your continued support, we would not have achieved our goal. We appreciate everything you do to support SHOW and our tenants; thank you.
