Cheques were presented to the Canadian Cancer Society, Bluewater office serving Grey and Bruce, and the Alzheimer Society of Grey-Bruce on June 21 at St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Southampton. From left, Alzheimer Society Grey-Bruce Minds in Motion Coordinator Carol McCurdy, Jim Stark, St. Paul’s Anglican Church Reverend Carrie Irwin, Manager for the Bluewater office of the Canadian Cancer Society Geoff Van Geem and Saugeen Shores firefighters Paul Shular, Josh Fritzley and Peter Eagleson who cooked up fish for the fish fry.

Hub Staff

The Canadian Cancer Society, Bluewater office serving Grey and Bruce, and the Alzheimer Society of Grey-Bruce were both presented with cheques totalling over $11,000 from St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Southampton on June 21. The funds, $6,009 for the Cancer Society and $5,227 for the Alzheimer Society, were raised at the June 9 Fish Fry and Heroes for Hope shave-off event.

Jim Stark, a member of the church and the main organizer of the event said he came up with the idea last year in memory of and to pay tribute to his father, Stewart Stark, Southampton’s Chief of Police in the ’60s and ’70s, who passed away from cancer in 2012.

“It went really, really, really well,” said Stark of the event. “People are already talking about how we can make it a little bit bigger next year,” he said.

“We had so much fun,” said St. Paul’s Anglican Church Reverend Carrie Irwin. “We had some very generous folks.” Irwin explained they had received a $1,000 donation from an individual.

Manager for the Bluewater office of the Canadian Cancer Society, Geoff Van Geem, who accepted the cheque on behalf of the Cancer Society said it was a “really interesting and exciting event,” adding that he was not expecting such a large crowd. “It was great to see all these people here.”

Van Geem explained that Heroes for Hope was previously known as Cops for Cancer. “Over the years as other organizations like firemen, paramedics, other people wanted to become involved we shifted it to Heroes for Hope, so it’s the same original event but it has now got more people involved.”

He added that the money received from the event would go directly towards paediatric cancer research. “Cancer research for kids, and towards support services we have for local children, particularly helping with the cost of transportation and things like that,” he said.

Alzheimer Society Grey-Bruce Minds in Motion Coordinator Carol McCurdy said that the money raised for the Alzheimer Society would be used to grow programs in Grey Bruce with particular focus on Saugeen Shores.