100 Women Who Care Oxford to Donate $10,000 to Hawkins Gignac Foundation

Tuesday, 20 July 2021 16:21

The 100 Women Who Care Oxford Chapter have already donated over $4,000 to the Hawkins Gignac Foundation, with the rest of the money expected to arrive later this summer.

OXFORD COUNTY - The 100 Women Who Care Oxford Chapter are donating $10,000 to Hawkins Gignac Foundation.

Hawkins Gignac is a non profit charity with a mandate to prevent carbon monoxide tragedies. Founder John Gignac explains what they will do with this funding.

"It means that we can buy CO alarms and give it to the people in the community, especially here, because this is where Laurie, her husband and their children lived."

Gignac says they will also spend some of the money on the educational component of the Hawkins Gignac Foundation.

"It will help us produce more Ricky the Seal Safety Ranger colouring books and now we are going to animate Ricky into a short film and it will cost money, but we will be able to run that in the schools to education the children, but yeah, the number one thing, buy CO alarms and get them into homes."

Gignac's niece, Laurie Hawkins and her family died from Carbon Monoxide poisoning in Woodstock in 2008.

Gignac has made it his mission to equip every home with a CO detector ever since. He teamed up with Local MPP Ernie Hardeman who was able to get a private members bill passed to make CO alarms mandatory in every home in Ontario. This was no small feat as Private Members bills almost never go through when you are in the opposition.

Last week the 100 women who care Oxford presented the foundation with a cheque for $4,100. The remaining money will be presented to the Hawkins Gignac foundation later this summer as the 100 Women collect from their members, which has been challenging during the COVID pandemic, as meetings were cancelled. Member of the 100 Women Who Care Oxford Giselle Lutfallah explains why they chose Hawkins Gignac as their charity of choice.

"I remember that day in 2008 in Woodstock. I know how deeply that tragedy affected the Oxford community and can only imagine how it affected the Hawkins and Gignac families. This is why the 100 Women Who Care Oxford are ecstatic to present John Gignac and his family’s foundation with this donation."

You can read more about the Hawkins Gignac foundation online here.