{"id":11325,"date":"2015-07-15T22:01:58","date_gmt":"2015-07-16T02:01:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=11325"},"modified":"2015-07-15T22:01:58","modified_gmt":"2015-07-16T02:01:58","slug":"hoedown-proceeds-to-help-keep-kids-fit-physically-and-artistically","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/hoedown-proceeds-to-help-keep-kids-fit-physically-and-artistically\/","title":{"rendered":"Hoedown proceeds to help keep kids fit \u2013 physically and artistically"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

This past spring marked a first for Aurora\u2019s Marquee Theatrical Productions. With the help of the York Region Children\u2019s Aid Society, the company hosted a March Break camp for local kids in need to \u201cgain amazing life skills through the arts.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a runaway success for the group, says Marquee\u2019s Sheryl Thomas, but next year there is going to be a lot more room to help broaden these kids\u2019 horizons.<\/p>\n

The non-profit Marquee has once again been selected as one of 15 local charities and non-profit organizations to partner with Magna for the annual Wild, Wild West Hoedown. In the months leading up to the September party, these groups will be hitting the pavement \u2013 and social media \u2013 selling raffle tickets for the event. In exchange, they will each get an equal share of the proceeds raised during York Region\u2019s biggest annual fundraiser. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have made great strides in the last year,\u201d says Ms. Thomas. \u201cWe have gained charitable status now and we have partnered with the Children\u2019s Aid Society. Last March, we had kids we comped to come to camp and the relationship just worked so brilliantly. Our fundraising efforts are now dedicated to helping underprivileged kids come to camp and our youth programs to gain amazing life skills through the arts \u2013 because that is exactly what you get when you come to Marquee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Applying this year to partner with Hoedown, Marquee said their share of the profits would help at least five kids take part in the programs, along with good, strong skilled staff to make it all possible. If proceeds are as high as they have been in the past, this program of five could expand to 20 or more placements. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know we can do well more than five,\u201d says Ms. Thomas. \u201cThat is our goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Hoedown will go a long way in helping each of these organizations achieve what once might have appeared to be rather lofty goals. The Aurora Barbarians Rugby Club, for instance, is earmarking their share of the pot for something they have always wanted to do, but something that has been just out of reach: a rugby house league for kids under the age of 14 spanning both Aurora and Newmarket. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is our second time as a recipient,\u201d says Tim Brochu of the Barbs. \u201cWe probably need close to $100,000 over the next five years to keep it going so having this organization help us out will [go a long way]. Rugby is almost always rep, even though they\u2019re kids from very young ages, but a mini-tournament today might be in Oakville. We want to reduce the travel time and reduce it to a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday so people can go to their cottages on the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rugby, says Mr. Brochu, is a sport in which interest is growing in York Region. Participation in the Barbs alone is up 12 per cent compared to this time last year, particularly among youth. Part of the reason for this growth is the affordability of the sports. Compared to other sports, participation in rugby usually results in less of a hit on the wallet, but is also emerging as a more popular sport within schools\u2019 phys-ed and team programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe amount of elite players we have in our club as well definitely helps,\u201d Mr. Brochu adds. \u201cWe have one of the girls in Pan Am right now. We have three girls who just got back from the National 15s championships in Edmonton.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the coming weeks, The Auroran will profile additional clubs and organizations partnering on this year\u2019s Hoedown. For more information on partners \u2013 as well as where and how you can purchase event and raffle tickets \u2013 visit www.hoedown.ca.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This past spring marked a first for Aurora\u2019s Marquee Theatrical Productions. With the help of the York Region Children\u2019s Aid Society, the company hosted a March Break camp for local kids in need to \u201cgain amazing life skills through the arts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/2015-07-16-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2WF","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-25 09:22:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}