The fourth-annual benefit dinner took on a life of its own here Friday night as the 280 people on hand raised almost $13,000 to help finance the medical needs of two local residents–surpassing last year’s fundraiser by nearly $4,000.
The evening, which also featured a silent and live auction, was held this year for Michael Pihulak-Sovereign, 16, who has cancer, and Amanda Jerry, 28, who is awaiting a double-lung transplant in Toronto.
“I’m simply awestruck,” said Luke Schill of the Fort Frances Lions Club, which co-sponsored the dinner along with the local Knights of Columbus and La Place Rendez-Vous.
“You could tell right from the beginning people were ready to spend dollars,” he added.
“They offered way beyond the value of the things they were bidding on and they didn’t give a hoot,” Schill noted, also acknowledging an anonymous cash donation of $500 made by a guest as they left the dinner at the end of the evening.
“It touches the heart to witness the outpouring of generosity for two of our [community] members . . . it makes me very proud to say I’m from Fort Frances,” Paul Noonan of La Place Rendez-Vous told the crowd.
Debbie Kempf also took to the microphone for a few minutes to share her family’s gratitude for the community support shown during her son’s illness.
Michael Pihulak-Sovereign, diagnosed with a rare form of the disease called “primitive neuro eco-dermal cancer” last August, will undergo chemotherapy treatments in Winnipeg every three weeks for the next seven months, she said.
“Since August, [this ordeal] has kept us on an emotional roller coaster,” she recounted. “The overwhelming kindness and support we’ve had . . . strikes a deep chord in the heart.”
Jennifer Zappitelli of Ignace also gave a heartfelt thank you to the guests as her sister, Amanda Jerry, listened from Toronto on a cell phone.
Although often choked with emotion, Zappitelli said her sister and brother-in-law were fighting the battle together as the wait for a double-lung donor continued.
Jerry was returned to the active donor recipient list just last week after a long bout of testing to subdue “excitable” antibodies in her blood.
“She is so young and being newly married . . . and to have to move away from their home in order to survive. But they’re doing it together,” said Zapitelli.
As for the actual fundraising, a queen-size quilt (made by Shelley DeGagné) fetched the highest bid at $745 in the live auction.
A deacon’s bench (handcrafted by Jim McKinnon) garnered $370 while a large area rug (donated by Revco Carpet) went for $270.
Proceeds also included $1,300 in pocket money raised around the room in just minutes when brothers-in-law Lew Kempf and Dwayne Pihulak agreed to shave their heads.
They minimum amount they’d wanted to raise was $500.
The two men were offered centrestage after the live auction. With electric hair razor in hand, and a crowd of onlookers rippling with laughter, they took about 10 minutes to bare each other’s shiny crowns.
“I’d been thinking about doing this as a fundraiser for about a week [but] nobody knew anything about it,” said Pihulak, noting Kempf had no idea about the “trim” until he was approached at the dinner.
“I said I would go for the haircut but my brother-in-law, Lew, had to go for it, too,” he chuckled.
“I was quite unsuspecting but once it was asked of me, I was okay with it,” remarked Kempf, adding he’d taken a shine to the hairstyle he now shares with stepson, Michael.
“I don’t mind it at all [and] I’m thinking of keeping this style until Mike starts growing his hair back,” said Kempf.
The local KCs and Lions Club already have donated $3,000 to the Pihulak family, with an additional $2,000 to be donated to them from the dinner’s proceeds.
Another $5,000 will to go to Amanda Jerry.
The rest of the proceeds raised Friday night will help subsidize the service clubs’ “Community Benevolent Fund” for future use.