Breakfast to raise funds for number of worthy causes
Markham Station restaurant to host event
Same bacon and eggs, four new worthy causes.
For the second time in barely a month, Scarborough's Markham Station restaurant is donating a morning's profits to help people in need.
Last month, the busy restaurant raised $7,000 to help victims of an earthquake in Sichaun, China and a cyclone in Burma.
This Monday, July 28, breakfasts sold there will help build a playground in Malvern, buy supplies and medicine for an orphanage and old age homes in Jamaica, bring relief to survivors of a typhoon in The Philippines and support a new hospital birthing centre in Scarborough.
Supporters of each cause say they'll be happy to get their portion, whatever it may be.
"Every little bit of help will go a long way," Philippine consul Imelda Panolong said during an informal press conference at the restaurant on Friday, July 18.
A few weeks ago, damage from Typhoon Fengshen, also called Frank, covered almost her entire country but hit a region called Sirculo Ilonggo especially hard. More than two million people were displaced and roads, bridges and schools must be rebuilt, Panolong said.
Ward 42 (Scarborough-Rouge River) Councillor Raymond Cho, who organized the breakfast and others before it, said a ward resident called him to say her relatives living in an area hit by landslides had lost everything. "They cannot even have farming, they have nothing."
The old playground at Wilcox Creek Co-op Homes on Forest Creek Pathway was torn down because it wasn't safe. That was four years ago, said Althea Miller, site manager for the 84-unit townhouse complex. "Right now the only place the kids place the kids play is in the street."
Miller said residents have sponsors paying for the equipment but the co-op must raise money for expenses, including food for the volunteers who will install the playground, rain or shine, on Aug. 14.
Monday's "multicultural fundraising breakfast" from 6 a.m. to noon will also help Dare to Care, a charity sending money, clothing and other supplies to institutions in Jamaica. These include a home for orphaned or abandoned children with HIV and homes for poor seniors on the island.
And some cash from the breakfast will also go towards completing the Regional Birthing and Newborn Centre at Rouge Valley Health System's Centenary Health Centre in Scarborough.
The centre, which may be open by October, will be one of the Toronto's best for advanced neonatal care.
Cho called the restaurant, on the southwest corner of Markham Road and Sheppard Avenue, a good role model. He added he hopes other businesses follow Markham Station's lead in helping their communities.
