THUNDER BAY - A popular event meant to capture memories while also raising awareness about autism, will be entering its own memory book.
On Saturday, Autism Ontario Thunder Bay Chapter hosted its 5th annual and final scrapbooking fundraising event, Giving a Scrap About Autism.
“This is our final event and we are going out with a blast,” said Dana Larrett, fundraising coordinator for Autism Ontario Thunder Bay Chapter.
There were 88 scrapbookers participating in this year’s fundraiser and Larrett said in its first year it raised more than $2,000. Larrett expects this year will bring in more than $3,500.
The idea to hold Giving a Scrap About Autism came from Larrett’s own love of scrapbooking.
“We thought, why can’t we do this for Autism Ontario?” she said. “I think for us to host and welcome everybody in supporting our loved ones, and you can see from the crowd here today, that we have strong support in our community of scrapbookers.”
“The majority of people who are here are scrapbook makers,” Larrett continued. “They take their memories, pictures of loved ones, or trips, vacations, celebrations, and then they cut and twist and put embellishments on them and make them look like works of art.”
Scrapbooker, Jackie Jung, has travelled all the way from Manitouwadge the last four years to participate in the annual event.
“It’s a wonderful cause and they put on a great scrapbooking day and I get to meet new people in Thunder Bay,” she said. “It’s a very worthwhile cause and the money goes to a good reason and it’s really nice to be able to support them.”
Jung said when she first came to Thunder Bay for the event, she did not know anyone, but now she has many scrapbooking friends in the city. So when she heard this year would be the last year, she was very disappointed.
“They do a really excellent job at running this one,” she said. “There are a few scrapbooking events, but this is my favorite.”
Larrett said it wasn’t an easy decision to end the annual event this year, but she hopes to see it return one day.
“We decided that given our present circumstances with employment, and where our children are and our family life, that this will be our final event,” she said. “But maybe down the road, who knows. It may resurrect itself.”
For the more than 70 people who seem to come out year after year, Larrett said she cannot thank them enough for all their support.
“We really value them,” she said. “We value that they come to support us, we value that they care about our families and that they care about us as individuals. And who couldn’t celebrating giving a scrap about autism.”
And while the community atmosphere, getting together with old friends, and raising money for a good cause really makes for a fun event, Larrett said the most significant aspect is raising awareness about autism.
“I think there are a lot of great people here with leading voices with respect to autism in our community,” she said. “I do think the awareness piece is significant. But we need to focus and work more on the acceptance, and that means thinking outside the box of how each of us can be supportive to people with autism.”
“If we can just think how we can help individuals with autism be more successful then we would see great things,” Larrett continued. “There are great attributes and gifts that they have to contribute and I think we need to harness those.”
