Celebrity-packed fundraiser helps Regina daycare
author: ethan williams | staff writer
Mmm, pie/Courtesy of Edgar Martinez
Civic and television personalities join to help Hope’s Home
Who doesn’t love a good pie-in-the-face contest? Well, if you visited the Riddell Centre cafeteria recently, you may have seen some familiar faces taking a pie in the eye for a good cause.
Several local and on-campus celebrities participated in the pie-in-the-face auction to support Hope’s Home, a local daycare in Regina for children with special medical needs. Haris Kahn, VP of External Affairs with the U of R Students’ Union (URSU) helped organize the event, and talked about the fundraiser.
“They [Hope’s Home] are doing a great job in our community by helping the families. We decided to organize a fundraiser for them since they are supporting many families in Regina, including some staff and faculty members of the University of Regina as well.”
Kahn says he got the idea of having a fundraiser for Hope’s Home last year, along with Dylan Morin, his buddy in the U of R Best Buddies program, but couldn’t find the time to do it. He says that he got the inspiration to follow through on it at the end of last year.
“Sometime in December 2017, we decided to do an event in January 2018. It was a random idea to do pie in the face, and it was so much fun to pie people for charity.”
The event featured media personalities such as Sabeen Ahmad from CTV Morning Live, Angel Blair from Global Regina, and Chad McDonald from 104.9 FM The Wolf. University faculty and staff also took part in the challenge, with Esam Hussein, the dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, and David Senkow, the acting dean for the Hill School of Business each taking a pie. Even civic and political notables rolled up their sleeves to toss some cream, such as Regina Police Chief Evan Bray, and NDP MLAs Carla Beck and Trent Wotherspoon. The event itself was emceed by Greg Morgan of My 92.1 FM, and pies were auctioned off to the highest bidder by Des Plewman from Regina Auction. Kahn explained why so many well-known Reginians were invited to help out.
“All of these special guests are awesome people that are always finding ways to give back to our community by volunteering [at] or supporting charity events. In the past, my Best Buddy Dylan and I had worked with some of these people on different projects like community events and fundraisers, and developed a friendship to support community events and initiatives.”
Asked if we could expect another event to help out those in need in the community, and possibly do it in the form of another pie-in-the-face contest, Kahn says yes.
“As a student body, we should be promoting and encouraging our students to find ways to give back to the community and make the world a better place to live. I’m glad that our URSU team is not only helping students, but we are also finding ways to support our community.”
Hope’s Home, meanwhile, has been operating in Regina for a number of years now, and recently opened their new Regina location in the old John Paul II Centre on 25 Ave., beside Dr. LeBoldus High School. They have also opened locations in Warman and Prince Albert in recent years.
