On May 23, 2019 at the Vancouver Art Gallery, the annual Mining for Miracles Pie Throw fundraising event took place in support of BC Children’s Hospital Foundation. Pie Throw is exactly how it sounds, participants toss pies in the faces of mining industry leaders in support of BC’s sick and injured children. This year’s event raised $1,296,801 surpassing the fundraising goal of $1,000,000. Those are some expensive pies!
The funds raised by the event will go to support of BC Children’s Hospital Gut4Health program. The initiative will further micobiome research and the development of new therapies with the goal of making BC Children’s the first children’s hospital in Canada to use gut bacteria to predict, prevent and treat infections and chronic inflammation in kids.
Matt is GeoBreak’s Training Coordinator who was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease at 13. He understands the challenges and difficulties that come with living with an auto-immune disease.
“I first heard about Mining for Miracles at AME’s Roundup back in January. Karla shared a story about a young boy diagnosed with Crohn’s and spoke further about volunteer efforts from the mining community to support sick kids and their families in our province. I reached out to Karla the following week to see how I could get involved. Crohn’s Disease was not the most fun thing to have growing up but through support from my family, friends, and the amazing doctors and nurses at BC Children’s Hospital I was able to continue to do the things I love without having this disease effect how I want to live my life. After learning more about Mining for Miracles initiatives and efforts I knew this is something I wanted to be a part of in any shape or form.”
GeoBreak and Matt will absolutely be attending next year’s event and will keep future events on their radar to continue to support Mining for Miracles efforts to help and improve the quality of health care for children in our province! Well done to all the organizers and volunteers that put on an amazing event!
