THUNDER BAY - Several people will be sitting pretty after winning new pieces of outdoor furniture decorated by local artists that will be helping some those less fortunate.
The winners of the Chairs for Charity raffle were announced after a drawing at the Sweet North Bakery on Court Street on Thursday.
The three winners received a wooden chair decorated by local artists Yuk-Sem Won, Shaun Hedican, and Randy Thomas.
“Erinn from the Sweet North bakery and I thought we would like to do a celebration of Canada 150’s anniversary and we wanted to do a fundraiser,” said Suzan Cooper Rochom, owner of Perfect Fit Lingerie on Court Street. “So we came up with the idea with the Chairs for Charity event.”
More than 1,000 tickets were sold during the months of June and July. At $2 a ticket, all the money raised will go towards the Children’s Centre Foundation of Thunder Bay and the Dew Drop Inn.
“We’re really excited that we were able to raise some money for two great causes in Thunder Bay,” Cooper Rochom said.
When the artists were approached to pain the chairs, they were asked to use a Canada Day theme and show what the celebration means to them.
“It was just an idea that came up,” said Cooper Rochom. “We’ve been doing a Canada day celebration on Court Street for the last two years. With it being Canada’s 150 we wanted to do something special to celebrate.”
Artist, Yuk-Sem Won, painted her chair with the image of water and canoe, which she said represents her idea of Northern Ontario.
“When Suzan approached me to do one of the chairs for charity, I really thought about what Canada and Ontario means to me,” she said. “I chose to do the canoe with the landscape in the back. It turned out really well because it looks like the canoe actually comes onto the seat of the chair.”
For Won, using a wooden chair as a canvas wasn’t very difficult as she is quite familiar with painting on wood.
“Lately my thing has been more about doing canoe paddles,” she said. “I do this same kind of design and landscapes and animals on canoe paddles so it was an easy transition to go onto the wood of the chair. In Northwestern Ontario, anything that has to do with the outdoors or fishing or hunting is really popular and that’s what I love doing.”
