Almost Home Kimmy Fund comes back home to Harrowsmith

Nov 29, 2012

Photo: Kids visit with Santa at the “Love Life Bash”, the 5th annual Almost Home Kimmy Fund fundraiser at the Golden Links hall in Harrowsmith on November 24

This year organizers of the annual Almost Home Kimmy Fund fundraiser, which was established in January 2007 in memory of Kimberly Ann Taylor of Harrowsmith, decided to bring the event back to Harrowsmith after holding it in Kingston for the last three years. The fundraiser, aptly titled a “Love Life Bash”, took place at the Golden Links Hall in Harrowsmith where it began five years ago.

Kimberly Ann Taylor lived and grew up in Harrowsmith and was a student at Sydenham High School. She passed away after a battle with cancer at just 36 years of age. Kim's mother Brenda Taylor explained to me at the event, “Kim really loved children and we wanted to do something in Kim's memory that would help children and their families who are battling cancer.”

The Nov. 24 event attracted numerous family members, friends and members of the community, and included a sumptuous ham dinner, a visit from Santa for the kids, a silent auction, and a raffle for a hand-made quilt by Sue O'Ryan.

Funds were also raised this year for the first time by an on-line Facebook auction organized by Kim’s cousin Mackenzie Jackson, where supporters could bid on over 300 donated items.

Together, the online auction and the Harrowsmith dinner and auction raised over $7,000 for Almost Home in Kingston, a hospice or “home away from home” for out of town families of sick children who are receiving treatment in Kingston hospitals. The home has 11 bedrooms, and kitchen and laundry facilities, and serves over 500 families every year, enabling them to be close to their loved ones and to support them while they undergo treatments. Children’s illnesses put families under considerable stress and the home allows them to get the sleep, rest and support they need and spares them the additional financial stresses of travel and accommodations.

Almost Home has over 90 volunteers who provide support to the families, maintain the facility, organize fundraising events and also assist with administrative duties. Brenda Taylor, who along with a number of volunteers organized this year’s event, said that she was thrilled with the turnout and that the decision to bring the event back to Harrowsmith proved a good one. “The first Kimmy fundraiser was held here at the hall in 2007 but we moved it to Kingston, thinking that it might draw more people there. However that proved not to be the case since a lot of the older folks found the Kingston venues not suited to them.”

Judging by the over 100 supporters who filled the hall on Saturday night and kept the bidding lively and fun throughout the night, the bash was an uplifting reminder of the last message that Kimmy left to family and friends before she passed on: “Love Life!”