Six Sylvan Lake residents have banded together to help a local family.
The group, called Brave Like Blake is raising funds for the Bellavance family as their son Blake undergoes treatment in the United States for his brain cancer which was diagnosed earlier this summer.
The team is hoping to raise close to $30,000 through a silent auction that will help ease the financial stress for the family.
“We have had really amazing responses from the community of Sylvan Lake and we have a lot of really great high ticket items that I think it’s probably a realistic goal. The cost to get the treatment and travelling there is so expensive and on such short notice so we want it to get to where there isn’t a negative financial impact on the family,” Brave Like Blake team leader Kayla Webb said.
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The community response has already been overwhelming, Brave like Blake member Lacey White said.
“The community has gone above and beyond, almost every single person that we have contacted or reached out to have just been so generous wanting to help out in some way shape or form.”
“The family is so thankful and we are just so thankful to live in a place like this where the people are so selfless and ready to help,” Webb added.
So far the auction has received 136 donations including gift certificates, golfing packages, coolers, appliances, a bred heifer that was won by the couple from Eckville during the Ponoka Stampede Cattle Raffle and many more things.
Empathy plays a huge role in the response so far, White said.
“I feel like empathy plays such a huge piece with this. I know when I hear about something happening to somebody’s family or friends or loved ones I usually try to put myself in their shoes and just imagine what that will feel like when if that ever happened to me and that feeling is so devastating you want to take off just any of this burden you can on somebody you care about.”
The auction will be from Aug. 6 to Aug. 13 using the site www.32auctions.com/bravelikeblake.
@sarahbaker
sarah.baker@blackpress.ca
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