by Sylene Argent, Local Journalism Initiative
With a strong sense of community spirit in the air – something Harrow Hometown Family Pharmacy’s owner, Lonie Kady, exemplified and was passionate about before his sudden passing in March – his colleagues, friends, and clients cheered as his business kicked-off Harrow Fair’s Pie Auction with a whopping $10,000 bid on the top peach pie.
The pie – made by Dana Meleg – was selected as the best peach pie in the Harrow Fair’s Culinary Arts competition.
Every year, community supporters head down to the Harrow Fair on the Thursday of the four-day festival to participate in the Pie Auction, which benefits the John McGivney Children’s Centre. It is an organization that enriches and celebrates the lives of children and youth with disabilities to help abilities grow by providing child-focused, family-centred care.
Thanks to community support, this year’s fundraiser brought in a whopping – and record-breaking – $82,000. This was substantially more than what last year’s record-breaking fundraising initiative that brought in $49,600 for the John McGivney Children’s Centre, at which Kady bought a dozen pies.
Later in the bidding, the Harrow Fair’s Grand Champion Pie – a key lime pie made by Mary Beth Little – earned the most at the pie auction, with Hometown Family Pharmacy making the winning $15,000 bid.
Candy Fielder, Kady’s business partner for over two-decades and girlfriend of 13-years, made those winning bids with Aldo DiNardo using a paddle that was emblazoned with Kady’s picture.
With tears in her eyes, she explained no one expected Kady’s passing. “It caught us off guard.”
She said Kady did not want a funeral, or an obituary, so making those bids was a way his family and friends could honour his legacy.
Kady was often a top bidder in the Harrow Fair’s Pie Auction, and was known to be the kind of person who went out of his way to help if he knew someone was in need.
“He had the biggest heart of gold,” Fielder said of Kady, noting the Harrow Fair Pie Auction was one of his favourite community events to attend. “He was always looking out for others.”
Before the Pie Auction, Fielder said she and her colleagues put a challenge out to the community to come bid against them.
To see many come out in a show of support was very touching, she said.
Fielder noted the money was going to an amazing cause, and she was proud to make those bids in Kady’s memory.
