Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Having laid his teenage son to rest just a few months prior, Harold St. George wasn’t looking forward to last December’s holiday season.
At the suggestion of his Santorini Mediterranean Grill staff in Napanee, he decided to turn the holiday season into a month long fundraising drive at his restaurant in memory of his son, Harold Jr.
Taking proceeds from every souvlaki dinner sold in December, coupled with donations from customers and suppliers, the St. George family was able to raise $1,000. Last month Harold St. George, Nilo Paramanathan and Aaliyah St. George delivered the cheque to the staff at Community Living Lennox and Addington.
“In April of last year my son passed away, he was 18-years-old,” said St. George. “He had a lot of challenges in life. It was a big challenge. He was under the umbrella of autism and cerebral palsy. With those challenges, Community Living (in Toronto) where we were living at the time, connected with us immediately and really supported us, getting us a wheelchair, helping us understand how the government funding goes. Children’s Aid got involved as well, with Community Living, and found him a care home and he had a pretty amazing life.”
St. George had gotten to know the staff at Community Living L&A over the last six years and felt a donation to the local organization would be the perfect way to honour his late son. It was also a way to help his family get through the grieving process.
“It’s hard, especially when you’re in a business and in any life, to talk about these things,” said St. George. “When we brought this up, we were able to talk about him. We were able to share with our community who he was.”
The donation was perfectly timed as Community Living is moving on to the next stage of their latest project.
“We have a project that is called our Sea Can Building Project that we’re in the midst of completing and one stage just got completed this last week,” said Barb Fabius, executive director of Community Living L&A, motioning to the large metal rectangles donated by Continental Conveyor that reside on the front lawn of their 99 Richmond Blvd. location. “Our woodworking shop here within this building, pieces of it will land in that building and it becomes another program.”
Following the success of last year’s fundraising, St. George says he plans to make the fundraising drive an annual occurrence.
Santorini Mediterranean Grill is located at 54 County Rd. 8.