Jill is excited to be volunteering with Kids Help Phone. See the newspaper article below.
"Ensuring someone’s there to answer the call"
For Langley realtor Jill Sinclair, Kids Help Phone is an important cause to support. She said it provides a crucial resource for kids in trouble.
“They’re confused and they maybe don’t have a parent to talk to at home.”
The organization provides professional counselling to children across Canada 24 hours a day over the phone and online. They also can refer children to local services in their area and partner with academics for studies on children’s issues. Their history of helping children dates back to 1976, with the national phone line started in 1989. In 2008, they answered over 2.2 million requests for help on the phone and online.
“That’s a pretty significant amount of kids,” Sinclair said.
However, the organization receives no core government or United Way funding, which Sinclair said makes fundraising events crucial.
“Everything we raise pays for 24/7 counseling for kids, either online or on the phone,” she said.
Sinclair has a busy day job with Langley’s Sutton Group - West Coast Realty, but fundraising is one of her personal passions. She got involved with Kids Help Phone earlier this year, motivated by both the extensive services they provide and their need for fundraising campaigns.
“I wanted to get involved with an association that really needed the help,” she said.
Sinclair has significant previous fundraising experience, and recently spent five years as the fundraiser chair for the Richmond-based Touchstone Family Association. Now, she’s taking on new challenges with Kids Help Phone.
She participated in their ninth-annual five-kilometre Walk For Kids Help Phone this spring in Abbotsford, raising $700 in pledges. She’s also organizing several local car shows to raise funds for the charity, including one this Saturday at Kennedy’s Pub in Delta. One of the biggest tasks on her plate is helping to run the Vancouver version of their annual Chicks With Sticks Ladies Charity Golf Tournament.
“It’s the 13th year they’ve had it going on,” she said. “Last year they raised $50,000 for the Kids Help Phone.”
The tournament will be held at Country Meadows Golf Course in Richmond on Aug. 26. The cost is $240 per golfer, and includes 18 holes of golf, breakfast and dinner buffets, on-course snacks and refreshments, a silent auction and prizes, including a chance to win a pair of tickets to anywhere WestJet flies. More information is available at www.kidshelpphone.ca/chickswithsticks.
Sinclair said there are always lots of charity golf tournaments, but this one is special.
“It’s by women for women,” she said. “People work so hard, we wanted to be able to give them a day off and also have fun helping the kids.”