REGINA - It’s not often you see money raised at the expense of someone else’s humiliation, but for Valerie Parker, all of it was worth it for a good cause.
Parker, the executive director of Renaissance Retirement Residence, came up with the idea for the Pie in the Eye Food Bank Fundraiser.
She got the idea from seeing other events where people would throw pies at someone else. Parker thought it would be a way to get the residents involved in an activity.
So, Parker decided the event would focus on residents solely throwing pies at her. When she originally came up with the idea, Parker remembers some residents reacted by telling her they could never throw pies at her.
When the day came for the fundraiser, Parker had her dad, who lives at the residence, be the second person to come up and throw a pie at her.
She admitted the idea was intentional, so other residents felt less nervous.
Each resident could throw a pie at Parker’s face by purchasing one for $10 each. The pies, which were whip-cream, were made by the chef at the Renaissance Retirement Residence.
The fundraiser had around 80 residents participate. Additionally, workers at the Renaissance Retirement Residence decided to join in on it. The active living manager threw in $100 and had pies thrown at her face as well. Along with her, the lifestyle consultant proceeded to do the same thing.
Parker felt this fundraiser was perfect for community engagement. She noted, "[this] is part of our daily initiative here, [which] is to ensure that our residents are engaged [and] that they have a sense of community, a sense of belonging, a sense of purpose, a sense of giving back. That is essential to someone's health, no matter how old you are. Whether you're a three-year-old or whether you're a 102-year-old, which is my oldest resident here."
Residents even noticed the fundraiser brought a lot of people together. They told Parker, "that was the first time that they felt like everybody in the building was working together for one goal and how exciting it was doing the chanting and cheering each other on and the laughter and the sharing of [all] that [enjoyment]."
Parker was asked how it felt having a bunch of pies thrown at her, which she replied, "it was fun."
She mentioned "having a different philosophy where I believe really strongly in being part of the community. I'm not that person or manager who hides in her office all the time. I'm very engaged and being out there."
By being engaged with others, Parker feels "you have a better idea of what their needs and what their wants are. Resident satisfaction is [also] huge to me."
Giving back
In total, the fundraiser raised $600, with all the proceeds going to the Regina Food Bank.
This specific fundraiser was not the first time the Renaissance Retirement Residence had done a charity for the Regina Food Bank.
Parker mentioned that during the Christmas season, they would raise food for the organization.
Along with the Renaissance Retirement Residence, there are three other retirement homes they’re collaborating with for the fundraiser: Marian Chateau, The Bentley Hillsdale and Green Falls Landing.
So, the Renaissance Retirement Residence and the other regional retirement homes agreed to raise money for the food bank during this time because during "Christmas time, there's always that huge rush to support the food bank, said Parker. "But when we hit into the February [or] March times of the year, that's when they [the food bank] start to run low again. So we thought that we would support at a time [where the food bank normally doesn't receive donations]."
So, all four retirement homes will raise money through their own initiatives and combine it all at the end of the month. For the Renaissance Retirement Residence, Parker has a goal of raising $1,200 by the end of February. Currently, they’re at $800. The other $200 came from smaller initiatives, like cupcake sales.
To raise the other $400, the retirement home is putting on more initiatives, as Parker explained.
"Well, today we're having Valentine's Tea. It's happening right now. We brought in some entertainment, but there's going to be a kissing booth, and it's $2 at the kissing booth, but we got two puppies. So they get to kiss [them]. So that's a smaller initiative. We [also] have another one. It's an arrow shoot. So it's going to have a bow [and] an arrow. [The resident are going to pay $5 per quiver. And [whoever] the person at the end of shooting down the bottles has the highest score, they're going to win a meal at our private dining room for six of their choice, done by our chef."
As for the gratitude the Regina Food Bank has had from all the fundraisers, Parker cannot speak on that because she’s not the one who reaches out to the group.
Even though Parker has never spoken to them before, she was asked what it would mean to one day hear their appreciation.
"[To me], that would mean that we've done the right thing. I would actually invite them in to thank the residents because it's not me that they need to thank. [In reality], It was a team effort."
Regarding their initiative throughout Feb., Parker encouraged citizens to stop by their location at 1801 McIntyre St. to make a donation.
