Local champion fundraiser Stan Matthews is on his way to Timmy's Telethon this weekend, where he will appear on television to receive an award.
The presentation will air sometime between 6 and 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 9, and while Matthews says he doesn't know the nature of the award, he's aware it's for his hard work and dedication over a decade of fundraising for Easter Seal Houses.
Matthews was the top fundraiser for the British Columbia Lions Society for Children with Disabilities for a decade, through the Snowarama/Fishing derby events of the Interlakes/Highway 24 Lions Club, until he retired last year.
“I've been the high money man for B.C. for the last 10 years.”
When he goes to Timmy's Telethon, Matthews will bring along a $500 donation from Sanders Redi-Mix Ltd., a $400 cheque from the Clinton Lions Club and a $200 contribution from himself, he says.
“I'm very pleased about it, but I don't know what I am going to say [on live T.V.],” Matthews says, chuckling. “You've got three minutes to talk, but what are you going to say?”
The funds from the annual Snowarama snowmobile touring events are combined with pledges collected by ice-fishing derby participants for Easter Seal Houses in B.C.
Located in Vancouver, Victoria and Prince George, Easter Seal Houses provide 40,000 bed-nights each year for families of sick children in hospital to stay nearby, avoiding almost $300 a day for hotel costs.
Prior to his work in the South Cariboo, Matthews says he also served a decade as the top fundraiser for the Prince George Knights of Columbus Egg-a-Thon, to help children in the burn unit at B.C. Children's Hospital.
Matthews once raised $32,000 at an Egg-a-Thon breakfast for eating just one egg, but he says other years he ate up to 110 eggs for the charity event.
He has moved his snowmobile activities a little southward, he notes, and is now an active member of the Clinton Snowmobile Club.