By Raina Stromberg
On March 12, 2020, a wicked group of YACCers, their families, and their friends all got together on a random Wednesday night at Rumor’s Comedy Club in Winnipeg to raise funds for Survivor Conference: 20/20. We could sit right next to each other, hug one another, and be in direct contact with each other as we watched Dino Archie killing it doing his thang on stage. We laughed, we cried from laughing so hard, and some of us even peed a little (from what I heard).
Those were the good old days before the new “C word” took over our lives. As if cancer wasn’t enough for us, the universe decided to throw us a new and unpredictable curve ball where we have to employ social distancing and self isolation. The universe knows we’re cancer patients, right? I’m quite sure that we are all masters at knowing how to avoid unwanted viruses and illness. We’ve got this y’all; Coronavirus can’t mess with us. Plus, we were already well equipped with copious amounts of Lysol and hand sanitizer.
Oh, the memories of two weeks ago.
We can’t wait to make more memories once we can be with each other again, hopefully in the near future!
Anyway, our fundraiser was a phenomenal success. We sold all 250 tickets and made $5,334! That is enough to cover registration for almost 27 people for the conference! Way to bring it, Winnipeg YACCers!
We have many people to acknowledge and thank for making this all happen. Firstly, a huge shout out to HUB International and Red River Mutual, our co-sponsors for the event. They donated the other half of the ticket sales to give us 100 per cent of the profits for all of the tickets sold. HUB also donated the iPad in the prize raffle. Jenna Ganchar from HUB (and the sister of Winnipeg YACCers Kori and Lisa) was a pleasure to work with, and is a big source of support for our cancer community.
We had three honourable guests attend the event as well. YACC’s “supreme commander,” Geoff Eaton; CancerCare Manitoba’s very own amazing AYA psychosocial counsellor, Ian Scott; and Michael Schiefer, Executive Director of the Never Alone Foundation which providing support for cancer patients in our Winnipeg community and all over Manitoba. Their presence at the fundraiser was wonderful!
A big thank you to Chantale and all of the amazing helpers, volunteers, prize donors, and especially to all of the Winnipeg YACC community for coming out and supporting a great cause and having a wonderful time.
We can’t wait to see you all at conference!
