Families will walk for Kids Help Phone fundraiser

By Kathleen Cleaver

Kids Help Phone is hosting a five kilometre non-competitive walk on May 1 at West Zwicks Island Park to raise money for their organization.

The Walk for Kids Help Phone event is free for anyone to enter, whether individually or as part of a team. All funds will be raised by pledges and sponsorships received by walkers. Registration for the event will begin at 9a.m. at Zwicks Park, located at 11 Bay Bridge Road in Belleville. The actual walk will start at 10a.m.

The event will be a family-friendly one with activities for corporate teams and families, as well as a free lunch for all participants according to their website. Activities like face painting and a colouring station will be included to provide entertainment for children. There will also be live musical entertainment provided by the Tweed Twangers, a group of hillbilly musicians. The free lunch and snacks will be provided by Tim Horton’s, Boston Pizza, Parmalat and Nestle.

Prizes will be awarded to the top fundraising team and individual at each walk event. An award of two tickets to any regularly scheduled WestJet location will be given to the top national fundraiser as well.

Around campus many people expressed their support for the services offered by Kids Help Phone.

A General Arts and Sciences student supports Kids Help Phone.

“A lot of kids find it hard to talk to people and they (Kids Help Phone) help them get through things that are going on at home,” said Jackie Pinsonneault

Another student expressed her support as well. “Sometimes kids don’t know where to turn and it’s (Kids Help Phone) an easy option for them,” said Christine Brown.

The event is a good chance for students to earn volunteer hours. Not only can students earn volunteer hours for helping out at the actual event, but they can also earn hours for their fundraising efforts. There will also be a chance for full-time students, aged 25 and under, to earn prizes. This year’s student prizes were donated by Empire Theatres and include free movie tickets and water bottles.

The students believe incentive prizes will get more youth involved.

“Everyone likes free stuff, especially college and university students,” said Chelsea Ashby, a student in the Advertising program. She also said that she had known a few kids growing up who were seeing school counselors, but also relied on the services from Kids Help Phone.

Even the Loyalist faculty members have known kids who have relied on its services.

“Kids Help Phone is a fantastic thing,” said Cory Mestre, a faculty member of the athletics department. He hopes the student initiatives will get more people involved.

This year is the 10th anniversary of the walk. Last year $2.5 million was raised by the event nationally and 15,000 Canadians from more than 40 communities took part.

Kids Help Phone provides kids with free, anonymous and accessible counseling from professional counselors according to their website. The bilingual help line is available to call 24-hours a day and can connect kids with any services they may need right within their own community.

Although the organization is called Kids Help Phone they also provide help to children online. Just by logging onto their website you can see evidence of the organization helping kids and teens and living up to there promise of anonymity and confidentiality at the same time. There is a separate section for each different type of problem that a kid might need help with and a forum that provides kids with a place to ask questions, receive answers and read previous posts. In order to ensure a child’s privacy when using the forums, the website offers kids the option of leaving the site quickly with just the press of a button and teaches kids how to erase their history so that no one will know that they visited the website.

In 2008, Kids Help Phone provided help to children in close to 3,000 communities over the phone and online.

The Walk For Kids Help Phone event is just one of the organization’s many fundraising efforts.

If you would like to get involved, or to organize your own event, you can visit walkforkidshelpphone.ca for more information, or visit their Facebook page. To receive support from one of their counselors call 1-800-668-6868.