P.E.I. women take it upon themselves to raise $60K for their churches

Two Island women havetaken it upon themselves to raise $60,000 for their local churchesafter COVID-19 caused the cancellation of their annual picnic fundraiser.

The picnics at Immaculate Conception in Palmer Road and St. Simon and St. Jude in Tignishusually attract thousands of people every summer, helping raise about $30,000 for each parish.

"The picnics are definitely something that many many people look forward to every year," said parish member Ruby Arsenault. "I know for a fact of a lot of my family that live away would travel home every year, plan their holidays to attend these picnics."

But this year, due to strict public health guidelines in place for public gatherings, the annual picnics for each parish were cancelled.

Despite the loss of income for the churches, Ruby and her friend Paulette Arsenault, also a memberof the Tignish and Palmer Road parishes, aren't getting discouraged. Instead, they'retaking it upon themselves to raise $60,000.

"We turned it around and thought, OK we're going to have to think outside of the box, we're going to have to come up with other means of raising funds and having some fun," Ruby said.

Her first fundraising initiative was an online cake auction. Eight cakes were made and five participants took part in the auction, raising close to $700. All proceeds are going toward the Palmer Road Parish.

Later this summer, Ruby plans to hold another online cake auction for the Tignish Parish.

'Shared between parishes'

Paulette is also spearheading a community cookbook to share between both Tignish and Palmer Road Parishes.

"I've always been passionate about wanting to do a cookbook," said Paulette.

Members of the communitiesare encouragedto send in recipes to be included. Acommittee will choose 100 per parish, with a section dedicated to holiday recipes.

"If we sell all 650 copies, each parish will clear $8,150," Ruby said.

Ruby and Paulette are aiming to raise the full $30,000 for each church by the end of the year.

"I see absolutely no reason that we couldn't, with a lot of determination, raise the funds for both parishes they would be losing due to COVID," Paulette said.

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