Despite a rainy Saturday afternoon on June 24, Five Counties Children’s Centre’s annual Backyard Summer Social raised $41,664 for the charitable organization serving children with special needs in the counties of Haliburton, Northumberland, Peterborough, and the City of Kawartha Lakes.
All proceeds for the event go to Five Counties’ Building Abilities for Life campaign that directly benefits children in the community to receive treatment services, including providing priority speech language therapy and occupational therapy as quickly as possible to the children and youth who need them.
“We know that the earlier a child can get into these programs, the better their outcome, which is why community support for our kids and families is so important,” says Five Counties CEO Scott Pepin in a media release. “We live in a very generous community, and the support shown us at our Backyard Summer Social is yet another example of people coming together to help our kids and families.”
Originally planned to take place entirely outdoors at the Five Counties’ Peterborough location, some activities moved indoors due to the threat of rain. However, attendees were still able to enjoy activities including axe throwing, a petting zoo, a lacrosse shootout, and old-fashioned picnic games, along with food, music and other entertainment, a live auction, and door prizes.
“The Backyard Summer Social is aimed at putting the fun into fundraising, and we were able to do that successfully again in 2023 despite the wet weather,” says Five Counties director of fund development Lyn Giles. “We’re very appreciative of all the support we had this year.”
Giles adds Five Counties is already planning ahead for next year’s Backyard Summer Social on June 22, 2024.
VIDEO: Recap of Five Counties’ Backyard Summer Social 2023
