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Miss Teen Oakville needs money to send Teddy Bears to Uganda By David Lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF 3 · OAKVILLE BEAVER Friday, May 22, 2009 RETAIL & WHOLESALE LIGHTING Miss Teen Oakville is asking her community for just a little more help in her efforts to help others. Earlier this month, Molly Burke, 15, appealed to the people of Oakville to donate 2,000 teddy bears and $4,000 for the Teddy Bears of Hope Project, which will see the bears transported to Uganda where they will be placed in the hands of needy children. The response was immense, but still more is needed. "Right now I have about 3,400 bears," said Burke. "It's been really great, the community has just been so wonderful and so quick about getting the bears and everything. The money hasn't been coming in as quick though. I have $2,200, but with the amount of bears I have, I should have double the amount of money." Burke said without the money the bears will not be going anywhere as $2 is required to pay for the cleaning and shipping of every bear. The successful completion of the Teddy Bears of Hope Project is essential for Burke to advance to the Miss Teen Canada International Pageant on July 25. As a young woman with Retinitis Pigmentosa, a genetic disorder that has Molly Burke slowly robbed Burke of her sight over the years, becoming Miss Teen Canada is very important with much more than bragging rights on the line. "I want to inspire other people and show that even though I have a disability I can still do everything else other kids can do," she said. "I also want to raise awareness of the Foundation Fighting Blindness." While only $4,000 is required to enter the pageant, Burke hopes enough money will be raised to send every bear donated to Uganda. In order to do this, Burke will be holding a fundraising event at her home at 349 Maplehurst Ave. on Saturday From 8 a.m. to noon members of the community will have the opportunity to pay $2 to have a bear sent to the children of Uganda in their name. Personal messages can be sent with each bear. For those simply wishing to donate, money can be dropped off at the Oakville YMCA, located at 410 Rebecca St., or at the Oakville Fire Department Headquarters, 125 Randall St. The two locations can only accept cash and are no longer accepting teddy bears as enough have been collected. To date raising awareness of this cause has seen Burke visit numerous schools where she has spoken with the students in an effort to gain support. The experience she noted has been a memorable one. "The kids are so into it. They just have so many questions about everything and they really want to know more about it," said Burke. "That's been great because I really wasn't sure what response I would get. I remember being a little kid and going to assemblies and being like, `Okay, when is this going to end,' but they've been so quiet, the teacher's said they'd never seen them this quiet and they've been bringing in bag loads of bears." The donated funds must be received by Friday, May 29, for Burke to be allowed to participate in the pageant. FAN SAL E Robert Abbey, Sonnemann Introducing SALE Featuring lighting from Trump Home · Troy · Hudson Valley · Stonegate Design · Heidle and much more and other Fine Lighting Oakville's Finest Lighting Store in the Oakville Home Improvement District ELEGANT www.conceptlighting.ca DISTINCTIVE 905.849.LITE (5483) 243 Speers Road · Between Kerr & Dorval · Oakville, ON OPEN SUNDAYS Summer RP4K students can learn University Level Game Programming while they're still kids! Your child or teen loves video games & does well in math without trying. They may have said that they want to design & program video games as a career! At Real Programming 4 KidsTM your kid can learn the secrets of game design, advanced math & real game programming while having tons of fun! At RP4K's 9th summer of Oakville Game Programming Camps we will teach your 9 to 17 year-old REAL PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES including; C#, XNA, Visual Basic, Java and C++. We do not use canned game making software. There are never more than 4 kids to an instructor! RP4K game programming camps take place at St. Mildred's-Lightbourn School, Oakville. FRESH Call Real Programming 4 Kids 416-469-9676 and schedule a FREE NO OBLIGATION TRIAL CLASS www.realprogramming.com TM Bright eye-catching style SPRING Fashion.