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Quesnel woman to host fundraising concert at Pen-Y-Bryn Farm this weekend

Musician Jimmy Baldwin will perform at the fundraiser for Wounded Warriors Canada
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Lindsay Chung rides into Drinovci, Croatia, with Rudy during Day 5 of the 2018 Wounded Warriors Canada Battlefield Bike Ride. Daniel Fortin photo

Lindsay Chung is fundraising for the (second) trip of a lifetime.

The Quesnel Cariboo Observer editor is preparing to embark on a week-long bike ride across the French coast of Normandy, beginning in Dieppe and ending on Juno Beach on the 75th anniversary of D-Day.

The Battlefield Bike Ride is the biggest fundraiser of the year for Wounded Warriors Canada, a charity which supports and provides mental health programs for ill and injured soldiers, veterans, first responders, and their families.

It will be Chung’s second year participating in the ride, which requires participants to fundraise a minimum of $4,000, as well as cover their own flights and rental bike when they arrive (or pay to bring their own bicycle on the plane).

“My dad is a veteran and he served in Rwanda, so participating in something like the Battlefield Bike Ride is really important to me because … I think that the programs that benefit from the money we raise are very much needed, and they make a big difference in peoples’ lives,” says Chung. “I’ve met many people who have gone through the programs and heard about the good that they can do — and seen it — so I’m happy that I can contribute to that in some way.”

The ride is also meaningful to her as a way to honour Canadian soldiers and veterans.

READ MORE: Battlefield Bike Ride was the trip of a lifetime for Quesnel woman

In order to fundraise for the trip, Chung is hosting a concert in Kersley at the Bunkhouse at Pen-Y-Bryn Farm this Friday (May 3).

Jimmy Baldwin, a musician originally from Prince George but currently living in Vancouver, will be performing at the event. Baldwin, a singer-songwriter, draws from a mix of country, jazz, funk, R&B, rock and various world music forms to create his own personal style.

It won’t be his first performance at the Bunkhouse, and $5 from every ticket sold to the concert will go to Wounded Warriors Canada as part of Chung’s fundraising efforts.

Chung says Baldwin has an old country-style voice, well suited to music like that of Merle Haggard. She says he is a talented musician, and one she’s excited to welcome back to the Bunkhouse.

“The last time he played at the Bunkhouse” says Chung, “he said ‘Oh, I’m just going to warm up’ and he played Bach on his guitar. It was super cool.”

Chung will also be selling Arrowhead Coffee, which is coffee from a veteran-owned company out of Ottawa, and running a bake sale at the event. About $6 per bag of coffee sold will go to Wounded Warriors Canada.

About halfway to her fundraising goal, Chung has also begun preparing for some long, grueling days on the bike. The shortest day of the trip is about a 44-kilometre ride, while the longest ride comes in at a whopping 158.6 kilometres — even longer than the longest ride on last year’s trip, which began in Bosnia and Herzegovina and went through the Balkans to Croatia.

Unlike last year, Chung now has a better idea of what will be waiting for her when she arrives in France. In a word? Family.

“The people who are part of it, a lot of them have gone on several rides — or even all of them — and keep coming back year after year,” says Chung.

“It’s really cool to be around such inspiring people, who also happen to be super nice, and so helpful. The people are so, so helpful … The biking was amazing and it was incredible to be in Croatia, but the people, especially, are what really made it.”

She says she believes any Canadian who is capable of visiting Juno Beach, where the Canadians were stationed in the Allied-invasion of German occupied France on D-Day, ought to try to do so.

“I think it’s incredible to have that chance to go there and put yourself in their shoes, and take the time to really recognize and honour what Canadians did over there,” she says. “And I’m just so excited to be able to do that with this group of people in this way.

“As soon as I heard that is what this ride would be, I was like: ‘I have to go.’”

Tickets are available in advance at Circle “S” Western Wear or at the venue for $25. The doors open at 7:30 p.m. at Pen-Y-Bryn Farm in Kersley on Friday, May 3, and the show starts at 8 p.m.

Chung is also accepting donations to her bike ride profile on the official Battlefield Bike Ride website here.



Heather Norman
Community Reporter
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Jimmy Baldwin is performing at the Bunkhouse on Friday, May 3 to raise money for Lindsay Chung’s Battlefield Bike Ride with Wounded Warriors Canada. Submitted photo