Motorcycle club Cerberus Saints is in the midst of helping organize the \u201cTournoi de Balle pour Zo\u00e9\u201d fundraiser and club member Joey Desch\u00eanes wants to spread the word in support of the cause.<\/p>\n
Desch\u00eanes and other club members jumped at the chance to be involved in the fundraiser in support of Zo\u00e9 and her family. Zo\u00e9 was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck three times. Not long afterwards, she was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy type Quadriplegia, which affects the arms and legs. As a result, work will have to be carried out on the family home to better adapt it to Zo\u00e9\u2019s needs. The fundraiser is taking place in Saint-Alphonse on July 16 and anyone is welcomed to get involved.<\/p>\n
The \u201cTournoi de Balle pour Zo\u00e9\u201d fundraiser is just one of many community initiatives that Desch\u00eanes\u2019 has been involved in. Last summer, he organized a car wash and a barbecue, (\u201cLev\u00e9es de fonds pour Liam\u201d) to raise money in support of another Waterloo family and raised almost $5,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year, I was also involved in creating a display for people who are unemployed or homeless that needed jackets and warm clothing for winter,\u201d added Desch\u00eanes.<\/p>\n
Desch\u00eanes said that if he can help his community, he will and that members of Cerberus Saints feel the same way.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are all people with their hand on their heart. They want to be involved and it\u2019s one of the reasons why we (the club) got started. We are all people that like to ride bikes and that also love the community,\u201d said Desch\u00eanes.<\/p>\n
Around three weeks ago, Desch\u00eanes\u2019 old neighbour, who is a close friend of Zo\u00e9\u2019s family, reached out to him on Facebook to ask if he had seen the GoFundMe that has been set up for Zo\u00e9 and the baseball tournament fundraiser after hearing about Joey\u2019s involvement in the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I saw the event, I said it\u2019s certain that I will be involved in this fundraiser. It didn\u2019t even take two minutes, I called up the Cerberus and each member also decided to hop on. We did as much as we could to find sponsors and we also spoke with construction companies that we know of. We asked if there were other things that we could do as well,\u201d said Desch\u00eanes.<\/p>\n
All money raised from the baseball tournament will go towards Zo\u00e9 to make the changes they need to their home.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, she walks using a wheelchair, but doctors have said that they don\u2019t think it will be too long until she will need a wheelchair permanently. (\u2026) The driveway is not asphalted, they don\u2019t have a ramp, they need an elevator so that little Zo\u00e9 can go from one floor to the next, they don\u2019t have a shower where a wheelchair can enter. There is a lot of work,\u201d explained Desch\u00eanes. \u201cAccording to Zo\u00e9\u2019s mother, the work is estimated at $150,000.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cTournoi de balle pour Zo\u00e9\u201d fundraiser invites those that want to do their part for a full day of baseball. There will also an auction, and hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, etc., will be served all day long. Those that can\u2019t make it to the tournament can also play their part by contributing to the \u201cUne Maison Adapt\u00e9 pour Zo\u00e9\u201d GoFundMe page.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe GoFundMe has already reached around $20,000 raised. People are already getting very involved just with the GoFundMe, so we are excited to see people at the tournament,\u201d mentioned Desch\u00eanes.<\/p>\n
Those that want to take part in the ball tournament can register a team by going to the \u201cTournoi de Balle pour Zo\u00e9\u201d Facebook event page. Those interested in sponsoring the event or helping out in some way, can also reach out through this Facebook page. The \u201cTournoi de Balle pour Zo\u00e9\u201d will take place on July 16 from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.<\/p>\n
Listen to the full interview below:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Motorcycle club Cerberus Saints is in the midst of helping organize the \u201cTournoi de Balle pour Zo\u00e9\u201d fundraiser and club member Joey Desch\u00eanes wants to spread the word in support of the cause. Desch\u00eanes and other club members jumped at the chance to be involved in the fundraiser in support of Zo\u00e9 and her family.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":104492,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,223,204],"tags":[16144,16449,7283,758,4158,1579,3758,16448],"radio":[246],"origine":[274,259,260],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104482"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104482"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104519,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104482\/revisions\/104519"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104482"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=104482"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=104482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}