Two years ago, a surprise fundraiser called the Mega Flamingo Car Rally was held for Megan Roberts' 44th birthday. She had stage four cancer and it was the height of COVID so her friends and family came up with an idea of a socially distanced fundraiser where every time someone donated to Covenant House Vancouver they were entitled to a pink plastic flamingo which they then placed on Roberts' front lawn with a message.
The campaign was one of the most successful DIY community fundraisers CHV had ever had and each donation was triple matched by various people and organizations, including Ryan Reynolds who also sent Roberts a personalized video message.
Roberts sadly passed away in June 2021 and this holiday season, her husband Craig Roberts and The Madison Group of companies which includes Glacier Media (V.I.A.'s parent company) are participating in a Mega Flamingo reboot.
"We were just absorbing the loss of Meg and her scholarship fund was doing so well so we took a break last year," Roberts tells V.I.A over the phone.
His two daughters, 12 and 14, are volunteers with Covenant House and the family has continued to have a relationship with the charity since the fundraiser.
Roberts and the execs from Madison and Glacier attended a CHV open house and saw the new facility which Roberts says was “very moving."
"It was incredible to hear these stories,” he continues, "we walked out of there saying 'we gotta do this.'"
Covenant House provides a critical safety net and individualized help for youth facing homelessness. All money donated to the Mega Flamingo reboot campaign (which is on until Dec. 31, 2022) will be triple-matched by the Madison Group. A spokesperson from CHV says, "the ‘Mega Flamingo Reboot’ is already our top DIY fundraiser for the year so far – at last check, closing in on $34,000! These funds will provide critical support for youth including housing, food, clothing, and complex care supports like counselling and access to Social Workers."
Covenant House Vancouver is over 90 per cent privately funded and community support is crucial to their programming and DIY community fundraising provides individuals, companies, school
People can find the fundraiser page here and all donations are eligible to receive an automatic receipt for tax/giving purposes. Roberts says people from all over Canada have contributed to the Mega Flamingo Reboot and as New Year's Eve approaches and the local campaign surpasses $100,000 after matching, he wants to say, “Hey Vancouver, let’s see how far we can go.”
