Children had a chance to sit in a fire truck, turn on sirens, unload a garbage truck and event paint a snow plow Saturday (Sept. 28), when the Quesnel and District Child Development Centre, a non-profit and registered charity dedicated to helping local children and their families, hosted its Touch A Truck fundraiser.
This was the fourth year for the Touch A Truck fundraiser in Quesnel, and Heidi Kuhn, the Child Development Centre’s executive assistant, says the event features all local businesses, and the people who bring their vehicles to Touch A Truck are all volunteers.
Besides a chance to sit inside everything from an antique tractor and a tow truck to a fire truck, a school bus and a police car, this year’s event included a chance to paint a plow, a raffle draw, face painting, a bake sale, a 50/50 draw, an obstacle course and a belly dancing demonstration.
All money raised during the event will help the Quesnel and District Child Development Centre offer services in the community.
The Child Development Centre’s mission is to help pregnant women, new parents, children, youth and families discover their potential, and the centre provides a wide variety of services, including a pregnancy outreach program to provide support, information and services to help women have healthy pregnancies; an infant development program that offers home-based services for infants and toddlers who have been identified as at-risk for a developmental delay, that have a diagnosed disability, or are showing a developmental delay in one or more skill areas; and supported child development services for children with special needs, as well as physiotherapy, speech language therapy and occupational therapy for children.
“All of that enables Quesnel people to stay in Quesnel instead of having to travel to Prince George of Vancouver, and we offer every service free of charge,” said Kuhn.
Kuhn says they do several other fundraisers with Touch A Truck, but the event, which is supported by large donations from Dunkley Lumber, Canadian Western Mechanical and Proheat Mechanical Systems, raises close to $20,000 each year. This year, Dunkley Lumber donated $11,000.
According to the Quesnel and District Child Development Centre’s website, the centre’s staff members impact the lives of more than 400 children and their families each year.
READ MORE: Quesnel Touch a Truck event raises cash for Child Development Centre
editor@quesnelobserver.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter