100 Kids Who Care raise nearly two grand for Aspire Special Needs

Those proceeds will now go to Aspire Special Needs Resource Centre in Red Deer, a charitable organization whose mission is to provide hope to children with special needs, the families who love them and the communities that care for them.

The other charities selected for presentations at the event included Ronald McDonald House of Central Alberta and the Cinderella Stylist, an organization that provides high school graduates in Red Deer formal attire at no-cost.

Teneal Dutrisac, Assistant Studio Manager at Dance Magic, says the event is a great way for kids to learn how to make decisions democratically and to learn about different charities in our community.

“It’s just a really great way for kids to learn to be good people and to give back,” adds Dutrisac. “You don’t need to be a certain age to make a difference and you don’t need to make a certain amount of money to make a difference. Ten dollars can go a long way, especially when we get 94 kids together, that’s 940 dollars that’s going back into our community, it’s the coolest thing.”

Michelle Sluchinski, Executive Director at Aspire Special Needs Resource Centre says the proceeds from this event will help support the roughly 350 kids that they help each year.

“What the money will be used to support is our programming at Aspire and also our specialized equipment purchases,” explains Sluchinski. “Sometimes we need walkers for the kids or we need adapted bicycles or just extra specific program supplies to use and so we purchase those. As well, we support families with fee-assistance, so some of our families are in financial need and they can’t pay our fees and so some of that will go to fee-assistance as well.”

Doreen Parcels, Co-Owner at Blue Grass Garden Centre in Red Deer, says they have donated the hanging baskets that each child has planted, with their gardeners to tend to them until May when the kids pick them back up to give out to people in the community.

“It’s another opportunity to instill kindness and philanthropy in the children,” exclaims Parcels. “From Blue Grass’s perspective, one of the greatest joys our company has is when we can give back. When we can host events like this and we’re really excited to be able to have the children experience that joy that comes with giving back to their community.”

For more information on ‘100 Kids Who Care’, click here.

For more information on Dance Magic Studio, visit their website at reddeerdancemagic.com.

For more information on Blue Grass Garden Centre, visit their website at bluegrassnursery.com.

by Sheldon Spackman

100 Kids Who Care raise nearly two grand for Aspire Special Needs

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