Duncan - The tribute to Karrie-Ann Stone and violence against women fundraiser that was held at the Cowichan Bay Pub on Feb. 2 was a huge success. A cheque in the amount of $2,650 on behalf of Karrie-Ann Stone was given to the Cowichan Women Against Violence Society.
Even though it was a tragic time in my life losing my daughter to violence, this fundraiser brought so much positive energy to everyone involved. It was a great time, and being able to try and help other women that face violence every day in their lives made the event well worth it. I can not give enough thanks to everyone that helped make this event so successful.There are so many people I would like to thank. A big thank you goes out to the Cowichan Valley Citizen newspaper for all their advertising for this event, which helped us out so much.Singer/songwriter Loren Halloran put in many hours helping me to plan this event, for which I give many thanks to him.Loren's time and energy helped me all the way with the fundraiser. Ray Harvey, the producer of the song (Swept Away: Reflections of Karrie-Ann Stone), spent many hours in the studio putting the song together. A big thank-you to Ray. A big thankyou goes out to Superstore for their large donation which helped with the funding for the event.The following names are all businesses that gave donations for the silent auction, which was a big success: The Ginger Tea Room Beauty Salon, Home Depot, FitStop Gym, Pure Fitness Training, Dolores Boutilier, Warmland Dental, the Eagles Lodge, Garment Factory, RONA, Mt. Prevost Vet Clinic, Flagship Ford, Duncan Auto, Sports Traders, Shades clothing store, Beverly Street Liquor Store, PetSmart, Shoppers Drug Mart, Staples, Tim Hortons, Starbucks, Lordco, Merit Furniture, Rembrandt's Chocolates, Cowichan Valley Golf & Country Club, Walmart, Safeway, and Thrifty Foods.Thanks to Chris Dobell for getting the bands together to play the event: Sweet Potato Brown, Shelly Brown, Daniel Keller, Rick Jarvey, Shelly Doupkla, Gordon Bighorn, Linda King, Thor Kristen, Garmey Sager, Nick Garvey, Gord Garvey and Bob Rutzbeck.I hope I got all the names correct. The music was great, and I appreciated all for their time, entertaining everyone at the pub. Thank you for being there and for your support for the event.The fundraiser brought so many people together, and brought a happy time out of a tragic event in my daughter's life. Karrie would have been so grateful for all of the people that thought of her.Once again I can not give enough thanks to all the people that were there for me in making this event successful. I have had the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people in the Duncan community.Doing this fundraiser for my daughter made me grateful that I could help other women who experience violence every day of their lives. This is the best feeling I could have hoped to have.Bev StoneDuncan