A fundraiser is being at East Side Mario’s tomorrow night in memory of a local man who passed away last year after a courageous battle with cancer.
Dave MacDonald was only 38 when he died, leaving behind his loving wife Karrie and their two young children, Piper and Lochlin.
The event starts at 5 p.m. and is being held as part of the ongoing F*ck Cancer campaign, honouring MacDonald. Over the course of the evening, toques and stickers will be sold with funds going directly to a RESP education fund for Dave’s kids and proceeds from meals will go to either the RESP or Hospice Huntsville.
Dawn Corbett, whose husband Pete owns the restaurant and was also a close friend of Dave’s, spearheaded the idea to hold the fundraiser as a way to give back to the MacDonald family and Hospice Huntsville. What makes this fundraiser unique is that people will have three options on how to donate the proceeds from their meal(s): 1) they can split it 50/50 between Hospice and the RESP education fund; 2) to Hospice only or 3) to the RESP education fund.
Corbett said that those who are interested in supporting the cause but might not be able to make it out at night can come during the day and the restaurant’s servers will honour where they would like to donate their funds.
This is just an idea we had because we want to do right by Dave. He was a great guy and we loved him and we wanted to do something so that he would be smiling down from heaven. He loved Karrie and the kids so much and we want to make sure they’re okay.
Dawn Corbett
Back in 2015, East Side Mario’s opened up their doors to a similar event that raised more than $3,500 for the MacDonald family as they faced a financial burden with the costs associated with Dave’s out-of-town cancer treatments. MacDonald was first diagnosed with thyroid cancer when he was just 14. Twenty-three years later it came back with a vengeance and spread throughout his body. Despite surgery and rounds of chemotherapy and multiple radiation treatments, Dave lost his battle with the disease and died at Hospice Huntsville in January last year.
Dave, his wife Karrie and their adorable kids Piper (left) and Lochlin. Dave was featured as an extraordinary person back in November 2015.
Corbett encourages everyone to come out to tomorrow night’s fundraiser in hopes that it will be a great success and can become an annual event.
She said a collective effort of Dave’s close friends and family helped make the idea for tomorrow’s ‘Remembering Dave MacDonald’ a reality.
“We would love to see you out to remember a great guy and to give back to this amazing, local charity and to set his children up for a wonderful future,” she said.
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