Raise-A-Reader: With golf tournaments on hold, fundraising foundation turned to one man and a bike
September 22, 2021
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When COVID put the kibosh on its annual golf tournament, the Forest Legacy Foundation looked for another way to raise money for literacy awareness. Enter Matt Clayton.
“We were thinking, ‘Well, we’ve got to do something to raise money.’ I threw my hand up and said, ‘Why don’t we ride bikes? Why don’t see how many kilometres we can hammer out and have people pledge us or sponsor or us?’ And the group said, ‘That’s a great idea. You’re going to be the bike rider.’”
Clayton, who is a director with the foundation, wasn’t exactly a cycling maniac — in fact, he had to buy a bike. He set his goal at 1,250 kilometres in 30 days.
“Every day, I’d go for a ride,” said Clayton. “Some days I’d do 20k, others I would do 100, depending on how I was feeling. I did have to take some rest days.” People either pledged on a per-kilometre basis or made a lump-sum donation. “We really wanted to keep the fundraising going.”
Clayton is the general manager of Kelowna-based Premium 1 Papers, a sales and marketing partner with the paper mills Canfor Specialty in Prince George and Canadian Kraft Paper in The Pas, Manitoba. Five years ago, he became involved with West Coast Pulp Charity Invitational, the fundraising tournament held by the Forest Legacy Foundation.
Sean Curran founded the foundation 16 years ago as a way of giving back to the community and raising literacy awareness. It is comprised of six professionals in the pulp and paper and shipping industries.
“What I found was that there are some reasonably large literacy groups,” Curran said. “But most of them are at a grassroots level, and that’s difficult for people to donate to. The reach of Raise-A-Reader was very important, and they were able to help with the allocation of funds. And with Raise-A-Reader we’d get a 100 per cent match with provincial funds.”
To date, their fundraising efforts, along with the support of the B.C. government, have contributed over $1.6 million to their beneficiary partners, which include Raise-A-Reader and Breakfast Clubs of Canada, a school food program. Despite the lack of a tournament last year, the organization — with Clayton’s help — raised $65,000.
“Cancelling the tournament was disappointing,” Curran said. “Probably now, more than ever, it’s important that we continue with the fundraising. Our industry is quite supportive of what we are doing. People are used to it. They know that at this time of year we start to do the fundraising.”
The foundation’s plan is to hold the next West Coast Pulp Charity Invitational in the spring of next year, and to expand its beneficiaries to include communities impacted by forest fires.
Clayton’s cycling month took place in September of last year. The 46-year-old did most of his cycling near his home in Tsawwassen, although one day late in the month he drove up to Prince George and brought his bike. “I rode between the different pulp mills. It was a shock, though, because it was so cold. I had to borrow some work gloves.”
Looking back, he thinks the goal of 1,250 kilometres in a month was reasonable.
“It worked out to 50 kilometres a day, times 25 days. That’s not a slouchy mileage to be doing each day. Some days were tough. If I missed a day I had to make up for it, so I had a couple of big rides. I think my longest was around 110. There was no way I was going to let the group down.”
He hasn’t quite kept up his 50k-per-day schedule since. But, he says, he did buy a new seat. “So I’m going to get riding again next week.”
How to donate:
Since its launch in 1997, Raise-a-Reader has provided more than $20 million to promote literacy in B.C.
You can make a donation any time. Here’s how:
• Online at raiseareader.com
• By phone, at 604.681.4199
• By cheque, payable to Vancouver Sun Raise-a-Reader:
1125 Howe St., #980
Vancouver, B.C., V6Z 2K8
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