The local charity Make Children Better Now (MCBN) marked its 20th year helping raise anti-bullying awareness in style.
Holding a 20th anniversary gala Oct. 25 saw MCBN bring in more than $100,000 in funds to fuel the charity.
Mike and Brenda Neuts helped spearhead MCBN after the death of their child, Myles Casey Benson Neuts – whose initials mirror MCBN. Myles died after having been left hanging on a coat hook at a school by bullies in 1998.
The MCBN charity came to be in 2005, but Mike Neuts began his anti-bullying crusade not long after Myles’ passing.
Since 2000, Neuts has spoken to more than 200,000 school kids across Canada.
Forming MCBN brought additional voices to the team in 2005, and helped shape it into what it is today.
Neuts credits his board – larger today than the initial offering in 2005 – with continuing to fuel the anti-bullying spark.
“Everybody on the board has a specialty work-wise or in their personal life,” he said. “That has brough an awful lot of different thought into the board.”
Neuts said the gala was a special event.
“It did feel special. It was a hell of a night. You could feel ‘special’ in the room,” he said.
People the organization has touched beyond Chatham-Kent made the trek that night to support the charity.
MCBN hosted a mental health conference 10 years ago at this time of the year. Neuts said several of the doctors who spoke at that conference attended the Oct. 25 gala.
They weren’t alone. MCBN had 400 tickets printed for the gala, which took place at the Bradley Centre, and Neuts said they were close to selling out, with 365 tickets sold.
Neuts said even people who didn’t attend donated to help others enjoy the gala.
“We had a ton of people donate the full price of a ticket for me to afford to have other people – who may not be able to afford it –come,” he said. “It was a tremendous night, recognizing a little charity that tries.”
The event featured a silent and live auction and music from Big Shiny Toons.
It is said it takes a village to raise a family. Well, it takes a board to put together – and tear down from – a gala. Neuts said board members were on hand for two days prior to the gala to help set up, and even the morning of, and some showed up again the morning afterwards to tear down and pack everything up.
“The people that helped me over the years, it’s phenomenal support,” he said. “The volunteers…just nudged it along the way it needed to be nudged.”
