WESTLOCK – To no one’s surprise, the Soul Sisters Memorial Foundation has officially announced their seventh annual “Nelly’s Night” fundraiser event has been cancelled.
“About June, we decided we probably weren’t going to be able to do a fundraiser this year,” said Soul Sisters founder and president Christine Vachon last week.
“When we saw how the economy had taken another nosedive, and all the farmers are having struggles again, and I’m like, there’s no way I’m going to knock on doors and ask for donations.
“We’re fortunate. We don’t have any overhead. We’re good with our money. We don’t pay rent for anything. We get by with what we have, and I’m OK with not raising money this year.”
She said immediately following last year’s event, number six, “Nelly’s Night in Paris,” people were already asking, “What’s your theme next year?”
Vachon said even since March this year, several people had already contacted Soul Sisters asking about this year’s event, asking about the theme; offering a cake or dessert for the auction.
She said the biggest thing she’ll miss is not being able to catch up with people at the fundraiser.
“It isn’t about raising the money; I miss the people. I miss us being all together for that night. It feels like a big hug all the time.
“That’s the part that we miss the most. It’s the people coming. It’s not that we can’t afford to keep moving on without having a fundraiser.
“It’s just the planning, the excitement, and the energy, and just the feelings that I’m going to miss terribly.”
The last big Soul Sister’s event was the sports evening with former NHL star Theo Floury in February.
“Even the lady who helped us book Theo has been sending me e-mails every month about a guess speaker for next February.
“And I said, I’m not doing anything. I’m not giving any deposits. I have to follow government regulations now. If I give someone a huge deposit, and you’ve got my money and you’ve got to wait another two years; I don’t want to be doing that.”
She said it’s really hard to be sitting in limbo and not know what’s going on.
In the meantime, Vachon said they’ve been doing Facebook Live sessions every Wednesday.
“They’re about a 20 minute to half-hour interview with people we’ve met. We talk about pandemic stuff, we talk about mental health stuff. It’s every Wednesday at 8 p.m.”
She said they have done more than a dozen of these so far, but it is kind of hard to do one each week, and laughs, noting, “It’s kind of like writing a newspaper column.”
Vachon added: “You’d think people would like to share; but they don’t.”
If anyone has a story to share about their struggles, she added they can contact her a Soul Sisters Memorial Foundation. Check out their website — Google Soul Sisters Memorial Foundation — or call Vachon at 780-349-1178 or e-mail her, [email protected] with any ideas.
The foundation began in 2013 after Christine and her husband Terry Vachon lost their daughter Janelle (Nelly).
A few short months later, feeling the need to organize a way to bring awareness to suicide and mental health issues within the community, she and her sisters and some close friends formed Soul Sisters Memorial Foundation.
