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Supporters pack gym for Austin family
Hundreds raise thousands for child's cancer treatment

Evan Kiyoshi French
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, January 28, 2015

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Malcolm Austin has met the Edmonton Oilers, the city has proclaimed a day in his honour and now he can boast around 750 new friends.

NNSL photo/graphic

Malcolm Austin, seated with his father Andrew and mother Kim Austin, was surrounded by 750 new friends on Saturday night during a fundraiser organized by the Yellowknife Education District 1 School Board to help his family pay for costs incurred during his cancer treatment. - Evan Kiyoshi French/NNSL photo

The Sir John Franklin High School gymnasium was packed to capacity Saturday evening for a fundraiser dinner where community members raised $26,000 for the six-year-old's cancer treatment. He was diagnosed with a brain tumour last fall.

Malcolm recently received radiation therapy to treat his tumour, called Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), in Edmonton.

"It did what it was supposed to do," said Malcolm's father, Andrew Austin.

"The tumour growth has slowed down or possibly even stopped. He's responded quite well to the treatment, but it's taken a physical toll on him."

The bittersweet event featured live music, a silent auction, a 50/50 draw, raffles and an enormous feast - the work of Yellowknife Education District No. 1 (Yk1) superintendent and executive chef Metro Huculak.

Despite the fact only 180 tickets had been sold by the night before the fundraiser, Huculak prepared 15 turkeys, 3,600 perogies, salad, desserts and a litany of side dishes.

The Filipino Association postponed their own fundraiser, previously scheduled for the same night, in order to help the Austin family boost numbers.

Huculak said he's known the Austin family since he arrived in Yellowknife 10 years ago and described Andrew, a teacher at Range Lake North School, as a quiet man who is popular with his students and grateful for the outpouring of support from the community.

On Monday, Austin said his son - who said he was feeling good - appreciated the menu.

"He loved it - he especially liked Metro's perogies," said Austin. "The whole thing, that was just incredible. It was way more than I expected."

Austin added he wanted to thank everyone involved in making the evening possible, including William McDonald School's Me to We club, which raised money leading up to the event.

"And the girls of the high performance basketball team in town, they were the ones serving up all the food," he said.

Austin, who has been a teacher for 16 years, said the feeling of having his family the focal point of the community is foreign to him.

"All of this attention isn't something I'm overly comfortable with," he said.

Mayor Mark Heyck was also at the dinner Saturday, but lamented he wasn't able to get a plate of food in the packed gymnasium.

"That lineup was a little daunting," he said, taking a moment to speak about how the city has come together for the Austin family.

"Malcolm is quite the little guy. When a young child is stricken with disease ... it's tough for people to try to absorb that and process that. But it's one of those things where people really pull together and make sure every support imaginable is available. "

Yk1 board chair John Stephenson - whose children studied under Austin when they were in school - mentioned how impressed he was with the community's generosity by pointing out bidders on the silent auction ran up bids on its 70 items.

Even after running up bids on the silent auction, at least two winners chose to share their bounty.

Huculak confirmed the winner of the 50/50 draw and the winning bidder of a set of plane tickets both gifted their prizes to the Austin family.

"We're so grateful to Metro and all the Yk1 staff. And we are certainly very grateful for all the businesses who put in all those beautiful items for the silent auction," said Austin, adding the family hasn't decided how they'll use the plane tickets.

"We haven't even talked about it yet," he said. "But we're excited."

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