Michael Borisko
Bradford Lions 55th Cadillac Car Draw
Always dedicated to the community, the Bradford Lions Club has been an active fundraiser for Southlake for more than four decades.
Health
June 23, 2008 03:03 PM
beingwell magazine Summer 2008
By: Patrick Mangion
Those were dark days for Jim Corneau. There were countless trips to Toronto with his ailing wife, more than an hour each way from their Bradford home, for cancer treatment.
She lost her battle four years ago. But since then, Mr. Corneau, a former town councilor and long-time member of the Bradford Lions Club, has become the reluctant champion for a cause he truly believes in. “We’d go there everyday. It was an ordeal,” he recalls of his wife’s treatments. “Of course I can see the benefit of a local cancer centre. There’s going to be an increase in cancer rates. So the cancer centre (in Newmarket) will be a big help.”
The Southlake Regional Health Centre, which includes Bradford in its vast catchment, will open the Regional Cancer Program in about 18 months. Within three years, the program will handle 100,000 patient visits a year, marking a massive increase from the current 16,000 cancer patient visits.
It will also mark the culmination of the hospital’s most ambitious fundraising campaign in its history. As $38 million of the required $60 million has already been raised. Southlake officials expect to reach their $60-million goal by the time the program opens in 2009.
Most of the money raised to date has come from individuals, corporations, community events and organizations, such as the Bradford Lions Club, who have generously given to their local hospital for more than 40 years. As a current director and past president, Mr. Corneau is the face behind dozens of members of the club who have raised $250,000 for Southlake Regional Health Centre since 1980.
However, the 71-year-old club’s altruism toward Southlake can be traced to the 1960s, when fundraising for the original Whipper Watson therapy pool galvanized the tiny communities in the area.
It marked the beginning of a relationship between the Bradford Lions and Southlake.
The club expects to reach its $50,000 goal for Southlake’s cancer program next year — ahead of schedule. The club dedicated about one quarter of its annual revenue to Southlake, with the expectation of reaching their $50,000 goal in less than five years. “The club has always had a connection with Southlake. It’s the main hospital that looks after Bradford,” Mr. Corneau says.
When a close friend asked him to join the local Lions Club 23 years ago, he didn’t hesitate. “I was honoured,” he says matter-of-factly, his purple and gold Lions jacket slung over the back of a chair at a Newmarket pub.
Since then, he has been part of a club and a tightly knit community, north of Newmarket, that has always answered the call to fill the gaps left from government funding.
Before the days of universal health care, the community rallied around its Lions Club to raise money for patients needing cancer treatment, operations and even dental coverage.
Bradford went without an ambulance up until the 1950s when the club once again stepped up to ensure the health needs of the growing community were met. It continued to pay for the operating costs of the ambulance for several more years, before government funding kicked in.
Its longest standing and most successful fundraising endeavour has been the annual Cadillac Car Draw and has been going strong since the 1950s. One year, the club successfully raffled off a small airplane. But the Cadillac elimination-style draw has turned the fundraiser finale into a suspense-filled party, as the 1,500 tickets are drawn one at a time over several hours. The last ticket wins the car.
“The Cadillac draw is more than just the prizes. It’s an event,” Mr. Corneau says. “It’s fairly dramatic when you get down to the final few people,” he says recalling the year an 80-year-old woman who bought her ticket the previous day, and walked away with the keys.
All profits are spread throughout the community, including the hospital.
“There’s never enough funding to go around,” Mr. Corneau says.
“We’ve always been involved with Southlake and probably always will be.”