Oakville Ontario News, Articles and Reviews

Team Lighthouse

“Running a Mile for Grieving Children,” a team of 44 members of Oakville’s “Team Lighthouse” braved the rain and cold to participate in 5K, half marathon, and full marathon events in the Scotia Bank’s Charity Challenge. The Lighthouse Program for Grieving Children provides crucial support to bereaved children, aged 3 – 18 years, who have lost a parent or sibling and a “Specialized Support Group for Kids” with a terminally ill parent or sibling.

The Lighthouse, located in Oakville at 82 Wilson Street, is a supportive and healing place for children and their families to begin the journey of understanding their loss and rebuilding their young lives. It provides a beacon of hope to children and their families of Halton and Peel. The Lighthouse Program for Grieving Children has been offering hope and encouragement to children in the Halton and Peel areas since 1999.

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Ryan Mercer, Georgina Miles, & Lyle Bleich

The Lighthouse Program offering peer Support for Grieving Children, Youth and their Families, receives much of their income from community events, some of them small and one-offs, others have evolved over the years into regular events that many look forward to each year.

During the recent Easter holiday celebrations, Lyle Bleich of Bernard Callebaut’s Chocolate store in downtown Oakville, located at 194 Lakeshore Road East, generously donated a divine chocolate bunny, weighing in at 3.6 kilos of the finest Belgian chocolate; this is the same as a small turkey or…the weight of the average human head! The eighth bunny Lyle has donated, they raised over $5,200 – providing the Lighthouse Program space for four children for an entire year.

Ryan Mercer, aged 9, drew the winning ticket for Betty, a dear Lighthouse facilitator who has supported many Lighthouse children over the past years, and she won this delicious bunny. Betty, who does not care for chocolate, donated the bunny back to the Lighthouse and they drew again….and the winner was Stephanie Hauser. Stephanie and her mom Jennifer had sold raffle tickets to many neighbours and friends and shared the bunny with them all at their Easter neighbourhood party!

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