For the second year running, Toronto REALTOR® Joan O’Connor, along with her husband, organized a Race for Chimborazo Children’s Fund at the Woodbine racetrack. The event raised $63,000 from donations and corporate sponsorships, which will go toward improvements to a school in Ecuador being supported by the fund.
This fundraiser is the latest flowering of an idea born when the O’Connors visited Ecuador in 1998. They turned their desire to help the aboriginal communities in that country into a school that allows kids to stay close to home and finish their education. Without it, these children would have to be sent elsewhere to continue past 6 th grade, at considerable cost to their parents. The school serves 10 local communities, and this year four new classrooms and two new teachers’ residences are being built.
Over 300 people came to the fundraising event, which featured a buffet lunch, a racing program, speakers, entertainment and a silent auction. O’Connor says a lot of support came from the Ecuadorian community in Toronto, as well as from the community at large.
“We’d never done anything like it before, but a lot of people just called me, or emailed me. We didn’t know any of these people before,” said O’Connor. We’ve been fortunate to have an emcee from CHUM radio, Gord James. His sister happens to be a nurse who’s gone to Ecuador three times.”
The O’Connors are partnering with Scarborough Missions, a non-profit organization, on the Chimborazo project. Joan O’Connor works with Sutton Group – Bayview Realty Inc.
