We never know the moments in our lives that will profoundly shape us. They are there, waiting for us to step into them, sending us in new directions and sometimes putting us in a place to help others in the wake of tragedy.
For Chris DiPasquale, a REALTOR® and salesperson in Lethbridge, Alberta, that moment came on April 13, 2020 when he heard that a 10-year-old boy named Charles McIntyre had been fatally hit when using a crosswalk that Chris himself had used just an hour earlier.
“I got home and saw the news and realized I had just walked there,” says DiPasquale, who was horrified. “The next day, I saw a sign on a street that warned drivers to drive safe, and that’s when I thought that maybe I could do something that could help prevent this from happening again to another child and family.”
Even though he had never met the McIntyre family, Chris felt compelled to connect and he reached out to the parents with an idea and an offer to fundraise in Charles’ honour.
From there the #SlowYourRoll Campaign was born; a community initiative that aims to help bolster safe driving practices to protect children and has wrought something community-minded and beautiful from a terrible tragedy.
<iframe width="100%" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WqStyUsxL0I?si=jsoIolYGdmg992Go" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>As a part of the campaign, DiPasquale has designed and distributed lawn signs, hats, decals, and shirts to raise drivers’ awareness of children playing and riding bikes in communities. Sales from these items provide funding for the Charles McIntyre Fund and non-profit charities such as the Lethbridge Food Bank. More than 1,000 signs have been distributed in various southern Alberta communities.
“Everything Chris has done has been about the safety of children and keeping the memory of our son alive. He has donated hundreds of hours of time” says Lee McIntyre, Charles’ father.
To date the campaign has raised more than $65,000 and makes a difference in children’s lives by funding efforts such as providing fee assistance for five local youth to join YMCA of Lethbridge’s summer camps, an activity Charles loved. The campaign’s fund is managed by the Community Foundation of Lethbridge and Southern Alberta.
In Lethbridge, police have rolled out a partner initiative to have the campaign’s signs put out behind photo radar trucks to raise awareness about safe driving. “The Police Chief has told us that the signs are really working, which shows the campaign is having an impact,” says DiPasquale.
As part of this year’s campaign, The Big Yellow Box initiative aims to help keep babies safe by providing free “baby at play” window decals so other drivers are aware kids are in the car.
<iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FSlowYourRollYQL%2Fposts%2Fpfbid0ST3hGjJ2aS4WnLdfRp4zFakDQM9D2xsK1wc7DrxpGrd8gdr2XxxC27NArfmS7BeDl&show_text=true&width=500" width="100%" height="700" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share"></iframe>Its expansion into the surrounding region now includes the town of Claresholm — where 10 businesses and an elementary school came together to implement the program — and also Taber and Coaldale in part thanks to the REALTOR® community who have stepped up to help.
“I’ve always been community minded,” says Chris. “So, as a REALTOR® in the community, utilizing connections was a key element. Even REALTORS® from other communities have purchased signs. In the future, we want #SlowYourRoll to grow across Canada but for now, we’re focusing on Alberta.”
