A sizable crowd gathered at the Mountainview Building Group offices in Thorold yesterday morning to witness the reveal of the amount raised by the inaugural Mountainview LemonAID Day campaign.
The fundraiser took place on Sunday, June 12 and saw municipalities from across the region come together to host LemonAID stands in support of Family and Children’s Services Niagara (FACS).
A whopping $85,134 was raised and will be used to send kids from all over Niagara to summer camp.
Caroline Polgrabia, who is the president of the FACS board of directors, gave an emotional speech thanking everyone involved with the fundraiser.
“I’m very, very proud,” she said. “All children deserve the opportunity to go to camp. To be able to live it in my own family and watch how excited my children get—I know what impact this is going to have across the region.”
"There were a lot of entrepreneurs out there under the age of ten that were making things happen,” added the vice-president of the FACS board Chris Accursi. “Kudos to them, it was unbelievable.”
Also honoured at the event were the Colamartini family for being the top fundraising team with an astonishing $3,557, which is the equivalent of sending 14 kids to one week-long summer day camp in Niagara.
Mountainview Building Group was the main sponsor of the event and president Mark Basciano was on hand to share his enthusiasm for the fundraiser.
“It was an awesome campaign from my perspective,” he said. “With all the crazy things going on in the world right now it was really neat to see the region, municipalities, kids from all over the place all kind of get together one day for a common goal.”
Mayor Terry Ugulini, who was also at the presentation, agrees with that same sentiment.
“I visited ten stands within the City of Thorold that I was aware of,” Mayor Ugulini told ThoroldToday. “Just to see the energy in those kids and see them enjoying the initiative and helping their peers—I can’t say enough good things about it. I think every year this is going to get bigger.”
Planning for the 2023 Mountainview LemonAID Day is already underway.
