A birthday fundraiser for a local mother who has cancer continues to raise funds for at-risk, homeless and trafficked youth in British Columbia.
Megan Roberts is a psychiatrist in Vancouver who has stage four cancer. She went to UBC medical school, and has practiced as a psychiatrist almost entirely in Vancouver, except for a period of time in Boston.
Megan's husband, Craig Roberts, tells Vancouver Is Awesome in a phone interview that she went for a blood test in July this year because she wasn't feeling well.
Within days, Megan was diagnosed with an aggressive form of bile duct cancer.
Craig says the diagnosis completely changed their world, and Megan resigned the following day.
The couple also has two daughters, age 10 and 12.
Mega Flamingo Car Rally
For her 44th birthday on Dec. 16, the family came up with a COVID-friendly idea to create a car rally for Megan's birthday. As part of the birthday celebration, it was decided that they would like to support Covenant House Vancouver.
Since Megan worked as a consult liaison and also an emergency psychiatrist, she has provided mental health medical attention to at-risk youths, who CHV supports, Craig explains.
And since she isn't on any social media, the family didn't have a hard time keeping the fundraiser a surprise. While she knew that a fundraiser was happening, Megan had no idea it had to do with her birthday.
The family created a fundraising page on Covenant House’s do-it-yourself fundraising site and when a donation was made it entitled the supporter to a plastic pink flamingo which would be placed on Meg’s front lawn on her birthday.
. By Photo courtesy of Craig RobertsMegan’s sister Carolyn Serka shared, “We could not involve Megan in the decision to support Covenant House Vancouver as we wanted it all to be a surprise, but we all know her well enough that we knew Covenant House was the perfect fit for Meg. She has dedicated most of her life to mental health as a psychiatrist. Through this work she has also spent a great deal of time working with troubled youth and adults that lacked the appropriate resources back when they were younger to get the help that they needed.”
Supporters and donors made up of friends and family picked up their flamingos and drove to Meg’s house on Dec.16 to drop them off, many with personal messages attached.
Neighbours and people passing by wanted to know what was going on and once they found out that it was a fundraiser for Covenant House in honour of Megan, they asked how they could donate.
Donations from around the world
And the donations didn't just come from Vancouver. Craig says that donors came from across the province, as well as the country. There are even some donors from the United States and overseas.
He added that a few people were instrumental in the success of the fundraiser, including: Megan's sister Carolyn Serka, who is the Trade Marketing Manager at Sleeman Breweries Ltd; one of Megan's best friends, Kathy Michael, an Air Canada Captain; Megan's other best friend, Sarah-Jane Anand, who is a physician; and Mark Savard, who works in Community Development at CHV.
. By Photo courtesy of Craig Roberts"Meg was surprised--she couldn't believe it," he says. "Meg's a very private person. She doesn't like a lot of attention, she's never been on social media, and she never seizes the limelight. But she was really touched.
"We are really moved."
Craig adds that the outpouring of support from friends, family and the community has been incredible. He also adds that Ryan Reynolds sent a message to Megan on her birthday, which also really touched them.
Donations are tripled
At the time of this writing, 225 people have to donated to the fundraiser, for a total of $53,423 raised; this amount translates into $160,000 new funds for CHV with the triple matching campaign.
In November, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively have made a generous donation to Covenant House in Vancouver and Toronto.
Vancouver-born Reynolds and his wife, American actress Lively, are matching donations up to $250,000 to Covenant House Vancouver and $250,000 to Covenant House Toronto.
According to CHV, the amount of money raised by the fundraiser so far will:
- Cover all the costs involved with housing all 63 youth in its residential Crisis Program for one week
- Allow Covenant House Outreach Workers to make 809 significant connections with youth struggling to survive on Vancouver’s streets.
- Cover all the costs with housing a youth in its transitional living program Rights of Passage for 15 months.
Megan and her entire family are beyond grateful to everyone for their tremendous support and are continuing to encourage more donations with the goal of doubling what they have already raised.
"Many donors were out of towners; however, most were from Vancouver or B.C.," Craig explains. "You may also notice a few recognizable local families. People were very generous in their giving. We were beyond grateful!"
"We’d like to challenge the rest of Vancouver to match our total, so we can double the gift to CHV. If we can get it up to $100,000 by Dec. 31, that’s $300,000 new funds to CHV! Come on Vancouver..! Let’s go! We can do it."
Find out more about the fundraiser here.
The Roberts family. By Photo courtesy of Craig RobertsCovenant House cares for youth ages 16 to 24 who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, while simultaneously working towards the elimination of youth homelessness.
Learn more here.
