What does Ronald McDonald House BC & Yukon mean to you and your organization?

Ronald McDonald House BC & Yukon helps families going through the most difficult time of their lives and gives families a sense of normalcy and community. When I visit the house in Vancouver, I see great things happening. It truly helps families, whether it’s the hockey rink in the backyard, the teen room with video games, or first-rate kitchens.

Ronald McDonald House BC & Yukon helps my local community and strongly aligns with my personal and corporate values. The partnership we’ve created between EMCO Waterworks Kelowna and Ronald McDonald House BC & Yukon is one of the ways I’ve chosen to give back to my community.

How many years have you been supporting Ronald McDonald House BC & Yukon?

I was previously involved with Ronald McDonald House in St. John’s, Newfoundland and their expansion in 2015, and have been a big believer in the cause since then.

I took over EMCO Waterworks Kelowna in 2017. Since then, my business and I have had strong partnership with Ronald McDonald House BC & Yukon.

I run a small business in Kelowna, with six teammates. Our EMCO Waterworks Kelowna team has personally fundraised over $130,000 for Ronald McDonald House BC & Yukon since 2017 through events like the Construction Cares Hockey and Soccer tournament and the EMCO Waterworks Interior Invitational Tournament.

What motivates you and EMCO Waterworks Kelowna to continue to fundraise for Ronald McDonald House BC & Yukon?

I strongly believe in community and corporate social responsibility. How you do things matters, and with a good portion of the Ronald McDonald House BC & Yukon families coming from my region (Interior BC), the alignment with charity made sense from a personal and business perspective.

My small team built our EMCO Waterworks Interior Golf Tournament from scratch, which I am very proud of. When we started out in 2019, we had 32 golfers and raised $2,300 for Ronald McDonald House BC & Yukon. In 2023, we had 108 golfers, 2 volunteers, 6 people from my EMCO team, and raised $41,445. We’re extremely fortunate to have so many friends of EMCO Waterworks Kelowna that share our similar vision of a great day out playing golf, for a great cause.

If you had to share a message to call on the community to support Ronald McDonald House BC & Yukon, what would you say?

I chose to partner with Ronald McDonald House BC & Yukon because their organization aligns with my personal core values: caring, community, compassion, and results.

In 2023, 59% of the stays at Ronald McDonald House BC & Yukon (28% Interior, 25% Northern Interior, and 6% Kootenays) were from families close to my home.

EMCO Waterworks Kelowna has gifted 1,043 nights for Ronald McDonald House BC & Yukon families since 2017. Having that level of direct correlation, witnessing the transparency in our fundraising, and making that kind of an impact at a local level makes the partnership valuable to me and my business.

Your favourite memory from your past Ronald McDonald House BC & Yukon fundraiser?

I think for me it’s about the momentum of tangible results with the Emco Waterworks invitational tournament we started. Our annual tournament raised $2,300 (2019), $4,000 (2020), $10,800 (2021), $20,055 (2022), then $41,445 (2023).

In 2023, I was giving a small speech at the end of our event to thank everyone involved and giving a bit of the history of the tournament and why we do it. I think that’s when it really set in what we were building here in Kelowna. It’s surpassed my expectations, and creating something from a grassroots initiative gives it so much more personal value and buy-in.