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Southgate Village lends a hand to Heron Heroes initiative
Bottle drive nets more than $200 to help child’s family during his medical treatment
2/6/2019
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Deron Hamel
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Logan, pictured above, is receiving lots of support from fundraisers the Heron Heroes have been hosting.
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It was a connection that happened by chance.
Before Christmas, Southgate Village fun co-ordinator Susan Davis spotted a notice on social media asking for wine and beer bottle donations to help support the family of a small child undergoing medical treatment.
Susan had some bottles, so she contacted the poster, whose name was Kim. Kim texted Susan back with a photo of the child, Logan, and some information about the fundraising initiative.
The story sounded familiar to Susan; she remembered reading something similar in an S&R Today article. A few more texts were exchanged and it turned out Kim was Heron Terrace personal support worker Kim Deslippe and she was raising money for Logan and his mother through the Heron Heroes program at the Windsor long-term care community.
The Heron Heroes is a group of team members that raises funds for community initiatives. The Heroes have spent the past year donating funds to help Logan’s family during stays at Ronald McDonald House in Toronto when Logan is receiving treatment. Kim and housekeeping department staff member Lisa Harris have been doing much of the fundraising for Logan.
Kim drove to Kingsville to collect the bottles from Susan and the two began chatting. Susan told Kim that every Christmas the Southgate Village residents’ council chooses a charity to support. While the residents usually nominate the Kingsville Community Food Bank, Susan told Kim she would tell the residents about Logan.
After hearing Logan’s story, the residents decided to split donations between the food bank and the Heron Heroes. Susan then sweetened the deal by proposing that people connected to Southgate Village who wanted to donate bottles to the Heron Heroes could send them directly to the Kingsville seniors living community to make pickups easier for Kim.
When Susan showed up at Southgate one day there were three cases of empty beer bottles along with some wine bottles. Kim picked them up, and then more bottles came, Susan says.
In total, Southgate Village raised $434, which was split between the book bank and the Heron Heroes. On top of the $217 that was sent to the Heron Heroes, one Southgate resident donated an additional $20 and Southgate Village executive director Becky Broughton donated $40.
The Southgate Village team then decided to take things up one more notch.
“I phoned Amy (Sworik), the administrator at Heron Terrace, and told her that maybe we would do a fundraiser in the new year,” Susan tells S&R Today. “Anything to help them out. And it’s nice to have two S&R homes working to help this little boy.”
Amy says the collaboration between Heron Terrace and Southgate Village couldn’t have been more perfect.
“One of Kim’s goals was that this would catch on in the community with other partners to engage in supporting others in need like our little guy Logan, in which she has achieved,” she says.
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