Drayton Valley businesses donated their time as well as their money to help children in need this past Friday.
Sam and Kent Dingwall attended a Go Baby Go event in Red Deer where they got to experience building a vehicle for a child in need. They loved the idea so much, they decided to bring the event to Drayton Valley.
The event is put on by Variety Alberta, a children’s charity that has been around since 1982. Their sole purpose is to give all children and families the support they need to ensure a high quality of life.
Go Baby Go is one of the programs they offer. Toddlers and sometimes older children are provided with little vehicles that look similar to power-wheel cars. However, each of these cars is outfitted for the specific needs of one child.
Jana Hands, the CEO of Variety Children’s Charity of Alberta, says there were 18 cars given out with 25 local companies working to build them. Since 2019, when the program began, they have given 141 children the gift of mobility.
“Our goal is to connect with foundations, corporations, business owners, associations and we fundraise through different means,” she says.
She says the charity will purchase the cars and then whatever items they need to ensure the vehicles meet the safety requirements for the child who will be driving them. In some cases, specialty seats can cost over $800.
“Having a child with special needs is expensive, and the government only gives subsidies in some areas,” she says.
The complete cost of the car is $3,000, and that is what they ask sponsors to donate. Then, they also have the sponsors come down and help to build the vehicle and give them to the kids, so they can see the direct results of their efforts.
The safety feature of the cars also extends to a remote parents can use to control the car if needed. There is also an emergency stop on that remote if it’s needed.
One of the recipients of the cars this year was a local family. James and Jordan Bullock’s son, Hunter, loves life and is always on the move.
“He’s a very happy, outgoing, very busy little boy,” says his dad James. Hunter is included in all of the family outings, along with his sisters Rylie and Aubrie. James says Hunter enjoys boating, sledding, quadding, and other outdoor activities.
His mother Jordan says that while Hunter can move on his own, he often runs off and this can make it dangerous in certain situations. One example, she says, is taking Hunter to the fair. “He’s a runner,” says Jordan, “he needs to be seated and have a seatbelt on.” She says sometimes he’ll take off in events where there are lots of people, and they have to chase after him.
“Hunter was diagnosed with a very rare genetic mutation, and there’s not even really a name for it,” she says. “There’s a mutation on his ARF1 gene and I believe he was the sixth child in the world to be diagnosed with this condition.”
Jordan says the support from the charity and the community meant a lot to their family. She says Hunter will be using the car everywhere, including in school so he can get to the park during recess.
His sisters say they are excited for Hunter.
“I think it’s good because Hunter will run off into the bush and we won’t know where he went, because he went by so fast,” says Rylie. She says by having the car, they can keep track of him more easily.
The experience of the event was just as emotional for the companies putting the vehicles together.
“It’s pretty heartwarming to see everyone in the community step up and construct these vehicles for the kids,” says Tony Trainor, a member of the Pembina Pipeline team.
Steve Horn, another member with Pembina, says the experience brought him to tears. Darrel Winter with Pembina said it puts things in perspective, to see how fortunate some people are to have happy healthy family members.
“I couldn’t ask for a better response. Everything went very smoothly today. Their reactions were what I hoped for,” says Sam Dingwall. “It was all around amazing.”
Dingwall says she had only planned to host this event once. However, many of the companies approached her after the event and told her they couldn’t wait until next year. She says it’s such a unique experience because they can actually see their dollars at work.
“I will look at hosting the event for next year,” she says.
Dingwall says the charity starts by looking local, which was how they found Hunter, and then they take applications from people all over the province. For the most part, the children are being pulled out of smaller rural communities, where there aren’t the same support systems that families in cities typically have.
