The event itself this weekend is admirable enough, with proceeds going to help Stratford’s House of Blessing, but it’s what’s behind it that stands out as much.
Ride For Refuge is a family-friendly fundraising biking/walking event in support of the House of Blessing. As of this writing, there were 42 registered participants working their way towards the goal of raising $20,000.
And behind them, you’ll find the H Family Charitable Foundation. Speaking on behalf of the Foundation and the family (who requested to remain anonymous) said they have been longtime supporters of House of Blessing as well as the local chapter of the Humane Society. The family firmly believes in giving money to where it can be best used at the local level, which is why they will be waiting until the final tally for the Ride For Refuge comes in before they give a donation that matches that amount.
“I met a friend at the dog park and she told me about this event,” she said. “We had the thought that if we matched the amount that got raised, that would drive up the total going to House of Blessing. And I know the group that they work with, they’re called Blue Sea Foundation, and they take a percentage. I didn’t want to just donate to the event because of that and I wanted to see our donation stay local. We’re going to match the final number, and they told us that donations can still be coming in a few weeks afterwards so we’ll wait a bit. It just gives more bang for the buck this way.”
Their foundation follows the guiding principle that when they step in to help they want to know the money is getting to where it is most needed. The spokesperson said that’s made it a little more difficult to get involved with some causes because there is no guarantee that money will remain in Stratford to be used here.
“I think in setting this up gives us more drive to find other places in town but in other areas,” she said. “It’s not that some other places, like United Way for example, aren’t doing good work. Speaking for myself, I need to believe the money is going to really help and go to the right place. You give your donation at Sobeys at the till when you check out, but how much of that goes to administration or to the government? The United Way is a wonderful organization, but I don’t know where (the money) is going, and I don’t know who it’s helping in Stratford.”
The drive to be charitable is one thing, but going as far as setting up their own foundation takes that next step forward. It’s something the family has done for years on a smaller scale, and making a move like this made sense to them.
“I’ll go to food drives and I’ll go buy groceries, but that’s not to the extent like we’ve given lump sums through our company,” Hayton said. “We would give donations over the years and I always wondered how we could keep our money local to help out here at home. I have the time now to research this and try to make more of an impact – the pandemic changed a lot of things and we’re still feeling repercussions from that, so I know the food bank can benefit. We wanted to help take the stress off.”
Another one of the foundation members said the inspiration for this kind of giving came from a family friend who works at the House of Blessing. They were given a first-hand account of just how much stress their resources were facing in recent days, especially the food bank.
“Knowing that we are in a fortunate position to be able to help, we knew we wanted to do something big,” she said. “No one should have to worry about where their next meal is coming from and we hope we can extend the reach of House of Blessing with this matching donation.”
Being part of this kind of behind-the-scenes effort reinforces the empathy and compassion the member said she and the family feel for their fellow man. It was taught by example, starting small and evolving into something bigger – buying someone’s groceries or a few extra presents at Christmas – and the lessons stuck in a big way.
“We were taught to always lend a helping hand and just be good, caring people,” she said. “Through our careers we had opportunities to participate in charity functions and make donations to causes that were brought to our attention, but the last few years we have really started to focus on efforts within our community that were important to use as a family like House of Blessing, Rotary Hospice and Optimism Place.”
So with a bigger picture in place, the H Family Charitable Foundation will be paying attention to the Ride For Refuge this weekend to see how that turns out. It’s a starting point, for now at least.
“You know, two bucks can turn into four, so I don’t think that’s a bad idea,” she said. “We just thought we’d try this and go from there.”
Local organizations who want to reach out to the H Family Charitable Foundation can do so via their Facebook page or by emailing [email protected].
