Sixteen years ago Debbie Rathje started a collection with her coworkers at TBayTel to donate to the local Cystic Fibrosis Canada chapter. “One of our coworkers, she has a daughter who was diagnosed. We were devastated,” she said.
The next year, they decided to go bigger and held a barbeque. “It snowed. It’s Thunder Bay. So we moved it quickly into the garage. It’s been in the garage ever since. It’s grown leaps and bounds,” she said.
Last year the TBayTel employee barbeque for CF awareness month raised $10,000 and the event now accounts for about 20 per cent of the local chapter’s donations. “It’s a very worthwhile event,” said Rathje, who is now retired but still volunteers at the barbeque. “It makes us feel good. It gives everyone at TBayTel a chance to get out of their cubicles, away from their desks for 2 minutes and just chat with their coworkers and have some fun,” she said.
The event is open to the public and Rathje said the good food and prizes are what keep people coming back. “Thunder Bay loves to get behind a great cause,” she said.
Cystic Fibrosis Canada local chapter president Gloria Houghton said the support they receive from TBayTel is unbelievable and with the annual CF telethon no longer running, the barbeque could account for closer to 40 per cent of their annual donations. “At this point in our chapter’s place, it would be really hard and I don’t know what we could do without this event. We’re just so happy TBayTel is doing this,” she said.
The money raised goes towards research and local clinics. The Thunder Bay CF chapter hosts a clinic for adults and one for children twice a year so people don’t have to travel to seek treatment.
And in the past 15 years, the research on CF has made substantial gains.
When the TBayTel barbeque began 15 years ago, the median age for people with cystic fibrosis was 30. Today it’s 48.
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