Keeping the Peace
By Tom Lessard
Years ago Bill Brady, the announcer for CFPL 980 radio, ran a fundraiser for Sick Kids called “The Bunny Bundle.”
Listeners of all ages found different ways of raising money. The fundraiser ran for years.
One night, after work at the Dufferin, the staff was sitting around having a well-earned staff drink. I happened to mention that I was looking for a way to raise money for the cause. One of the waitresses’ husbands (a farmer) was there to pick her up. He stated that he had an old rooster that he didn’t want, and if I wanted it I was to come out to his farm later in the morning and help him catch it.
I arrived at his farm at about 10 a.m. We used an old cabbage crate (which still had a few leaves in it) to put the rooster in for transporting it. I drove back to the hotel and installed the crate on top of the bar piano. The rooster didn’t seem to mind. Next, I went across the street to the little grocery store and purchased six eggs. These I also put on top of the piano.
I started selling tickets at noon for a quarter each, and by 5 p.m. I had raised $99. The draw was made. A fellow in the bar won the first prize: the first half-dozen eggs a rooster ever laid. The second prize – the rooster – went to a fellow who lived in Huron Park but had left earlier. So I loaded the crate and rooster into my car and drove over to the winner’s home, knocked on the door and waited.
His wife came to the door. I told her that her husband had won the rooster. She said, “What the heck am I supposed to do with that thing?”
I suggested she could sick it on him when he got home, and quickly left.
We received a certificate of appreciation from the charity in the mail a week later, but I have no idea whatever happened to the rooster.