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Silent success Friends band together to raise money for friend with breast cancer
Danielle Sachs
A few days later, the mother of two young girls was visiting the doctor for a referral to a dermatologist and mentioned a lump in her breast. It wasn't long after Bujold learned she had cancer and soon her new life in Edmonton was a flurry of medical appointments and treatment plans. Lifelong friends in Yellowknife, however, weren't going to let her fend for herself. With Bujold facing a year off from work, a group got together and decided to try and help ease the family's financial strain. Soon a Facebook page was created filled with donated items from local businesses and residents for a silent auction. Karin Vanonen was one of the organizers of the event. She met Bujold when they were in junior high school together at William McDonald Middle School. "It turned out to be way bigger than we thought it would be," said Vanonen. "We're extremely pleased and honestly, overwhelmed with the outcome." Vanonen had seen an auction-style fundraiser on Facebook before, and through talking to the rest of Bujold's friends, decided to try out the same thing. "There's no overhead, you don't have to book a space, buy food or send out invitations, it's a lot cheaper," said Vanonen. Originally, organizers expected the auction to raise around $5,000. They never expected the total to jump right past $15,000. As of Tuesday afternoon, donations were still trickling in on the silent auction page. "People are just amazing, they adding onto their winning bids saying they might as well round it up by another $25 or so," said Vanonen. Ninety-two items were donated for the auction, some from as far away as Hawaii, where a friend of the Bujolds donated three paintings. "What we did, probably about three weeks ago, a few of us girls decided to do something. There were 13 of us. A few of us were able to go out and meet and talk about what we would do," said Vanonen. Once the group was created and a date and time set for the auction, donations of items started pouring in. "It was incredible," said Vanonen. "There was loads of home-baking that these incredibly talented people made and a lot of donations from both businesses and other people." Vanonen said initially Bujold felt kind of bad about the auction, saying there were others who needed it more. "But they just moved away, that was huge. She had left the NWT where you have full health benefits, and then finding out something as devastating as having cancer, we had to do something." Vanonen credits the success of the auction with the generosity of the Yellowknife community. "We don't know if this would have been as big of a success if they weren't Yellowknifers. I've lived other places and have never seen something like this."
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