Hogs for Hospice raises $262,500 for Erie Shores Health Foundation

March 24, 2021

Despite the Hogs for Hospice weekend being postponed last year, the Hogs for Hospice Committee dove into other fundraisers and through that hard work, managed to present a cheque in the amount of $262,500 to the Hospice Erie Shores Campus recently.
The group held a summer 50-50 raffle around the usual Hogs weekend in August, and then held another 50-50 raffle during the Christmas holidays. The proceeds from both of those raffles comprised much of the large amount donated last week.
As for the 2021 Hogs weekend, organizers are still hopeful that they can hold this year’s event.
“We’re holding on and are ready for this if we can get the green light,” said committee spokesperson Joe Oswald. “We’ve already got the date set for the Blessing of the Bikes.”
The Blessing of the Bikes was held last summer with a twist. It was held as a drive-thru event, as opposed to the usual gathering of hundreds of bikes. Oswald was pleased with last year’s turnout to the newly formatted blessings event and is looking forward to 2021.
“Hogs for Hospice refused to have COVID-19 define fiscal 2020,” he added. “We made a decision very early on to meet this adversity head on, as H4H is about brotherhood, sisterhood and doing good.”
The committee saw the continued need and they were determined to keep things going, in spite of the pandemic.
“Regardless of the pandemic, our Erie Shores Hospice needed our help,” said Oswald. “This year’s contribution was more than our first two years combined.”
As for the Erie Shores Health Foundation, they were grateful, as always, for the committee’s contribution.
“Wow! This is such an amazing total to achieve during these challenging times, and is a true testament to the love and dedication Hogs has for the Hospice Erie Shores Campus,” said Erie Shores Health Foundation Executive Director, Christine Colautti. “Our community is definitely a better place because of Hogs for Hospice, and we couldn’t do it without them.”
Oswald summed it up best, giving credit to the whole community at large.
“There is an old saying that it takes a village to raise a child. Well, it certainly took a village, community and H4H supporters to achieve this financial result this year,” said Oswald. “The $262,500.00 was achieved by everyone coming together – Hogs for Hospice board members, H4H HQ Team, Erie Shores Health Foundation, H4H Ambassadors and most importantly, our sponsors and donors. We did not achieve this alone.”