As residents of Fort McMurray begin this week to return to their homes, Daniel Perry, 10, will be watching with special interest. He feels he is helping them get home.
The Guelph boy, a Grade 6 student of St. Joseph Catholic School, has been raising money to help the evacuees, tens of thousands of whom were forced to flee the northern Alberta city when a wildfire swept through in early May, destroying about 10 per cent of the community’s buildings.
“What touched me so much was seeing the way the city was getting burned down,” said Perry, who has raised just shy of $500 so far for the Canadian Red Cross relief effort for Fort McMurray.
That money was matched dollar-for-dollar, so just under $1,000 will go to the effort. He is planning another fundraising event at his school on June 10 – a bake sale and wacky hat and hair day.
Normally, students can’t wear hats or outrageous hair in school, but on that day if they pay a buck or two they can get as outrageous as they like with the tops of their heads. There are 300 students in the school and Daniel hopes they all donate something.
“Even though 90 per cent of the buildings were saved, most of what got burned was people’s homes,” the boy said. “I could imagine losing all of my stuff, and it would be really hard for me.”
Daniel’s mom, Sara Walker, said her son anxiously watched the news about Fort McMurray as the natural disaster unfolded at the beginning of May.
“When the fire started, he started talking about them all the time, and asking all these questions,” said Walker. “It was everyday, multiple times a day, just asking questions. He’s very empathetic towards others.”
Daniel expressed his worry for the residents affected, and tried to put himself in their place.
“He kept saying, ‘If this was me I would be so scared, so afraid I wouldn’t have food for the next month.’ He’s got a very big heart,” Walker said. “He’s his own person and he’s not afraid to be that person.”
The boy first thought to hold a yard sale at the family’s townhouse complex, which raised $100 selling items they found while cleaning out the basement. Some people paid twice the asking price for for items, just to help the cause.
Others donated cash outright, and other donations were forthcoming, adding up to about $450.
Daniel said he hopes to raise another $500 through the bake sale and wacky hat day.
“I imagine the money going to a specific family, and maybe they can buy two-months worth of food with it, with some left over to spend on whatever they want,” he said. “Maybe one of the kids will have a birthday, and they can get them a little something nice.”
His effort, he said, has been a big deal for him in many ways.
“I feel like I am really helping someone,” he said. “And it is the very first time I signed an official document.”
Upon dropping the money off that he had collected at the Canadian Red Cross office, there was a form he had to fill out.
That very really important, he said.
