A broken-down old vehicle will help the Unique Get Together Society (UGTS) transport even more kids with special needs and developmental challenges to programs like summer camp, soccer practice, basketball and bocce.
Sort of.
Debra Abraham, the executive director of UGTS, said after a story appeared in The Tri-City News last summer about the dilapidated condition of the group’s 2004 Buick Rendezvous, which it used to take the kids on outings all over the Lower Mainland, she was contacted by a representative from an “experiential marketing” firm in Toronto who had read the article online and wanted to know more.
Abraham told the representative about the Buick’s wonky transmission and how it was making it difficult to give the kids her organization helps experiences often taken for granted by children without challenges, like trips to the Greater Vancouver Zoo, Cultus Lake and the Britannia Mine Museum.
A few other exchanges followed but that’s the last Abraham heard until she got a call in late November that UGTS had been selected to receive a donation of $10,000 in conjunction with a ParticipACTION 150 event at Percy Perry Stadium in Coquitlam last Thursday.
Abraham said she was “thrilled.” But when she was called to the stage, in the middle of a driving rainstorm, she was informed things had changed.
Instead of the $10,000 donation, Iman Shahsavani from Eagle Ridge GM would be presenting her with $25,000 from Chevrolet Canada’s Gift of Play program.
“I was absolutely blown away. I was in disbelief,” Abraham said of the donation, which is more than enough to repair her Buick and buy a brand new van as well.
And just in the nick of time, too, as UGTS is about to embark on new partnerships with School District 43 for a basketball program and Sportability BC to introduce kids to bocce. Those are in addition to its summer camps, an existing adaptive soccer program with the Port Moody Soccer Club and three new recreation programs in the works with the Surrey school district.
“These kids really need this,” Abraham said, adding efforts by UGTS to get kids with challenges involved in sports and recreation programs also help take the pressure of parents, who are often left at loose ends trying to find accommodating activities.
It also means Abrahams will be soon adding van shopping to her already busy holiday season, which includes UGTS’ major fundraiser for the year, a ’70s-themed New Year’s Eve party at the Burrard Public House in Port Moody. The event includes Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe impersonators, a tarot card reader, silent auction, appetizers and dinner.
“It’s an exciting time for us,” Abraham said.
• For more information about the Unique Get Together Society as well as its New Year’s Eve fundraiser, go to www.uniquegettogethersociety.com.