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Grande Prairie's Tenille Townes performing during the 2019 Big Hearts for Big Kids fundraising concert at Evergreen Park (Photo: Sheena Roszell)
By Jeff Henson
BIG HEARTS FOR BIG KIDS

Townes returns home for 12th edition of Big Hearts for Big Kids

Apr 1, 2022 | 12:02 PM

For the first time since 2019, the Big Hearts for Big Kids event will be held in front of a live in-person audience.

The 12th edition of the fundraiser for the Sunrise House Youth Emergency Shelter is set for Saturday at the TARA Centre at Evergreen Park.

Grande Prairie’s Tenille Townes launched the event back in 2010 when she was 15, after reading a pamphlet about Sunrise House that her mom had picked up at another fundraising event.

“I was reading it at breakfast going ‘Wait a minute, these kids are my age.’ This sunrise house serves youth in Grande Prairie,” she explained.

“I didn’t even know that we had a youth shelter and that there were kids that were struggling with homelessness or addiction or maybe home was not a safe place to go to at night. The thought of that was so crazy to me and instantly I thought ‘What could we do?'”

Townes, who has returned home from Nashville to once again host this year’s event, is excited to see the event return to a live in-person setting.

“It is crazy that it has been three years since we were all together in that room. I am grateful for the creativity and resilience led us to be able to do a streaming event to gap that weird time when we could not be together,” she said.

“I am so excited to be back in the room. There is nothing like that. There is such a sacred spirit exchange that happens when everybody is in the same space and my heart is so ready for the return of that.” Townes added.

Over $2 million has been raised from Big Hearts For Big Kids since the event started in 2010.

Sunrise House Executive Director Tanya Wald says this event is crucial for the daily operations at the youth shelter.

“It helps us buy food, it helps us pay for different supplies for programming, it helps us pay our utilities. So this event is very critical to our operations and to make sure that we are always here when youth show up at our door,” she explained.

Wald adds that the last in-person edition of Big Hearts for Big Kids in 2019 raised just under $425,000.

“When we look at how successful that event was in 2019, what we really want people to realize is those funds have helped carry us the last two years.”

“The fact that we raised those additional funds in 2019 ensured that over the last two years, when we were not able to fundraise, when different contracts were being decreased, we were okay, and we were okay because of the generousity of our community,” Wald explained.

“So I really hope people realize that this event really does keep our doors open in the worst of times.”

A virtual event was held in 2020, which raised just under $80,000.

No event was held in 2021.

Wald says that even though the event has changed locations over time, going from the Jackpot Grill in its first few years to its current home at Evergreen Park to allow for more people to attend, the intimacy of the event and how it runs have not changed.

She adds that the heart of the event is why people keep coming back every year.

by Jeff Henson