Coldest Night of the Year smashes fundraising goal

March 3, 2022 · 0 Comments

By Rob Paul

Anyone who was out and about on February 26 in Caledon likely saw an uptick in walkers; this was no coincidence, but rather the 194 walkers were out trying to make a difference.

It was the third annual Coldest Night of the Year (CNOY) event organized by Caledon Community Services (CCS) and it was a resounding success thanks to the 37 teams that raised $98,364.

CNOY is an annual event that communities across Canada take part in as they hit the streets in the evening for a brisk walk to raise funds and awareness for local charities that help the hurt, hungry, and homeless.

Caledon was one of nearly 200 communities that took part this year.

“It went great this year,” said Donna Cragg, CCS Director of Communications and Marketing. “We exceeded our fundraising goal by hitting 131 per cent of the goal ($75,000) and even though we’re a small community, we came 36th out of all the communities nationally. It was a very exciting event.”

Though this was the third year CCS has brought CNOY to Caledon, it’s the second straight year the event has had to be run in a virtual fashion due to COVID-19.

“We’re absolutely continuing with this going forward,” said Cragg. “We’re hoping we’ll be back to doing it live next year. Social media documented it all this year with #CaledonCNOY22. Getting to see the firefighters, families, and young people walking was really great it was all very well received. People really enjoyed the experience and having the ability to help.”

When running an event like this in Caledon, it’s not hard to find support says Cragg, even with the pivoted approach to it due to the pandemic, because this is the type of community that always rises to the occasion.

“The social media aspect is nice because it allows people to still connect,” she said. “It’s that whole idea of walking together while walking apart. It allowed people to share their experiences with each other, which gave you as connected a feeling as you could have without walking live all together. This is the type of community we all aspire to live in, one that cares for the most vulnerable among us. Caledon has proven time and time again that they don’t want anyone left behind.”

One of the biggest highlights for CCS with the walk this year was seeing all the different communities, businesses, and organizations in Caledon get involved and raise large amounts of money—of the 37 teams, 26 raised over $500 and 18 raised at least $1,000.

“We had three local churches in the top 10 and two small communities on the west side (Cheltenham and Terra Cotta) get into the top 10 with just five or six people,” said Cragg. “It’s great to see that type of engagement Caledon-wide. We targeted 200 walkers and got to 194, which is the most we’ve ever had, and we easily surpassed our fundraising goal (the original goal was $50,000). We had exceptional response from business sponsorships, not only businesses but the realtors really stepped up because housing is their thing. We may start a trend of it being the ‘Realtors Month of Giving’ because that’s what we’ve been calling it and we’ll see if that picks up across the country.”

One team that made a substantial difference in particular was the Caledon Fire and Emergency Services team that raised $14,025.

“It was phenomenal to have them,” said Cragg. “They kind of just came late and took the top spot and ran with it. They really engaged with the cause because they’ve seen homelessness, they respond to fires and see families devastated so they could really identify with the cause. They stepped up in such a big way.”

Caledon Fire’s CNOY team captain, Lee-Ann Lawrence, Training Division Captain for Caledon Fire, initially planned the event for the new recruits to get involved in the community with a relatively attainable fundraising goal that they swiftly surpassed.

“The way it started was with our recruit class,” said Lawrence. “We have our recruit class do a community outreach fundraiser every year now—we did a walk for Boots on the Ground last year—and I saw this coming up and thought it would be great for our recruit class to get involved in. They were told they had to raise a minimum of $50 and we’d do the walk in full gear. From there, we sent it out to our entire department and invited anyone else who wanted to join. My first goal was $1,000 to $1,500 and we reached over $14,000.”

This type of fundraising success was unprecedented for Caledon Fire and Lawrence credits everyone on the team buying into so quickly to challenge of making a difference in the community.

“We’ve never done something this big before,” she said. “Last year we had a much smaller group with just our recruit class of 14 and they raised $5,000, and even I thought that was amazing. This year it all just went above and beyond, it’s by far the biggest fundraiser our department has ever done. There were 39 firefighters in total from Caledon that participated by raising money.”

Being involved in community events like this are nothing new for Caledon Fire and outreach is something Lawrence says they pride themselves on and it’s a must for helping set a community-oriented tone with recruits.

“It’s a huge part of the job for us,” she said. “Our firefighters give back to the community on a regular basis with what we do for our job, but we like to step up for things that are close to the heart. With this one, all the money went to CCS, which is local and that means a lot. We always make sure to focus on things like that whenever we’re doing this, especially with the recruit class. I’m the lead for the recruit class and they come in thinking they’re just going to learn firefighting tactics but they’re here to be leaders in their community. Doing something like this brings them together as a team and starts them off in that team environment and teaches them how to work as a team and shows what a group of people can do when they work together to give back to the community.”

This is something Caledon Fire plans to make a yearly tradition because of how much the firefighters enjoyed it and how much they care for an organization like CCS.

“I think we’re going to do it again because I’ve had numerous firefighters ask,” said Lawrence. “The timing is perfect for getting the recruit class to do it and I like it because it’s a challenge for our recruits. It’s a challenge for them both to fundraise and to do the walk in full gear—even though it’s only seven kilometres it’s hard than it looks in full gear. I would like to see us do it every year because I can’t say enough what CCS does for our community locally. We work with them with the food bank around the holidays and we work with them with the toy drive, and this is one more aspect where we can help them give back to the community.”

All of CCS applauded the efforts of Caledon Fire and is proud to have such strong leaders in the community.

“Can’t say this enough, Caledon Firefighters have absolutely lit up this event,” said Monty Laskin, CCS CEO. “Thank you all for your exceptional support and for your outreach to your own friends and family. Your results are outstanding, over-the-top fantastic.”