On Saturday August 15 in the County of Leduc, the Lake family and their friends and neighbors held a large community garage sale to raise awareness and funds for the Thaddeus Lake Music Foundation.
To benefit youth of Leduc County and Millet wanting and deserving to pursue their musical talents, the foundation was created by local music teacher Karen Lake and her husband Tony shortly after the tragic passing of their son Thaddeus Lake on November 6 2011. Only three weeks before his passing, a young man with enormous talent and a bright future, Thad had shared with his family his dream of creating such a foundation, to “make it possible for children and youth to pursue, develop and explore musical avenues through the advantage of lessons, loan of instruments and extra financial support”. It has already helped young musicians and school bands to attend national festivals and competitions.
At the hands of a drunk driver, Thad lost his life with his two close friends, Kole Novak and Brad Arsenault in a crash near Beaumont. Brad’s mother Sheri Arsenault has created “Families For Justice”, a group passionately devoted to influence the government to change the impaired drivers’ laws, calling them too lenient, through the promotion and distribution of a petition that has now been signed by more than 100,000 Canadians. Www.brad.kole.thad.com will provide more information on the “Forever Young” group.
At the community garage sale, several alumni who have been the recipients of the Foundation`s support, music students of Karen’s and bands performed all day long, such as Paige Gatske, Saige Kondratski and Julianne Simard, the recipient of a 2015 Leduc Rotary Music award. The foundation is now open to applications for funding from schools, agencies and private teachers (thadsfoundation@me.com and 780-986-0656) and of course, gratefully accepts financial donations.