Children and adults turned Lego play into an opportunity to raise awareness and money for the children's playroom to be built at Nipissing Serenity Hospice. The president of Play4Prosperity brought his fundraising event to Northgate Shopping Centre this weekend. Mike Campigotto's company is a sponsor of Bricks4Hospice.
Campigotto explains that Play4Prosperity was created to help "build prosperity in communities, specifically in Northern Ontario. The focus is to help entrepreneurs of any age, charities and non-for-profits, and to build social awareness around issues that matter to the communities we live in."
The company president said it's main priority is to engage young people. He said it's a demographic fundraiser's don't normally approach, because they don't have a lot of money.
"But it's a group that has a lot of power based on their social networking capabilities, so we've been running a competition across all the high schools for two months. They've raised about $3,000 here in North Bay using texting. They're been texting to raise money for the Hospice."
The chair of Nipissing Serenity Hospice explained the five-to-five campaign encourages students to donate five dollars on-line, then reach out to five other people to do the same. Mathilde Bazinet said the money will help cover some of the $250,000 needed to build the playroom. As she explained, it essentially will be a small, sound-proof gym with play equipment.
"We want the children to have an area where they can play, because when they come to see a family member in the last phase of their life, it's very stressful for them. They can stay in the room with a loved one for a little while, but then they need to get out and play."
The Hospice committee wants construction of the new building to begin no later than the end of July. That will give contractors time to close in the building so work can continue inside over the winter. The cost of the building is a little over $5 million, $2.6 million has been raised to date. The Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Committee Board is expected to review a 1.5 million dollar application from Nipissing Serenity Hospice within the next week or two.
With the added help of sponsors, organizers hope to reach their target of $10,000.
