By-law didn't put damper on backyard Canada Day fundraiser

Canadians coast to coast celebrated Canada Day together, whether it was at an event at a city park, or at home and in their neighbourhoods.

During the holiday weekend, Ryan Chard and his family in Preston, decided to turn their backyard into a Canada Day celebration for neighbours, all for a good cause.

The event was held in support of KidsAbility, an organization that helps children and youth with special needs and their families to achieve goals important to them at home, at school, and in the community.

This isn’t the first time Chard has held an event at his home in support of KidsAbility.

“Our Canada Day Party was great, and we had a lot of fun,” Chard said.

“We’ve been doing it for years, but it’s been gradually increasing. It’s always been held at home.”

The event, however, did not take place without a bit of bump. Chard received a ticket from City of Cambridge by-law for excessive noise.

“We went around the block and handed out flyers to let people know about the event. We had quite a few neighbours come out,” Chard said.

“I didn’t contact the city to let them know. We’ve been doing this for years. I’ve only ever had one complaint before.”

According to the City of Cambridge, the city received 11 noise complaints and eight fireworks complaints over the Canada Day long weekend.

“This resulted in two tickets being issued for noise by-law violations, each having a total payable amount of $300,” said Allison Jones, supervisor of communications.

“Tickets were also issued following a progressive enforcement approach when the homeowners did not listen to a request to turn the music down which resulted in multiple complaints to Waterloo regional police between the hours of 11:45 p.m. and 2 a.m.”

Jones said ticket recipients do have options that are located on the back of their tickets.

They can plead guilty by paying the total amount shown on their ticket, go to the court office and seek an early resolution meeting and make submissions about the penalty, (including the amount of fine or how much time you have to pay), or ask for a trial date.

“The city did not know that this was a fundraiser. By-law was just doing their job. It was a $300 fine,” Chard said.

Despite being issued a ticket, Chard said everyone had a great day.

"We had 150 people coming and going throughout the day,” he said.

“I was barbecuing for about three hours. There was good food and good music. FireTrain, a band that has been playing around the area for over 30 years, came out and performed.”

The event raised over $2,500 to support KidsAbility, an organization that has personal meaning for Chard.

“Both of my boys are autistic, so KidsAbility has helped them both tremendously growing up and it continues to do so,” Chard said.

“It serves all kids in the community. It’s such a great organization.”

And every year in the winter, between Christmas and New Years, Chard holds another fundraiser for the organization.

"It’s a community hockey game where we all get together and play. We’ve had it at a few different arenas. People donate and it all goes to support KidsAbility," Chard said.

“It’s an evening event, we play and then celebrate together afterwards. We even had a donation from Ontario Sports who made up our jerseys with KidsAbility and autism awareness on them.”

In the future, Chard said he will continue to show his support for the organization with the events he holds twice a year.

“We’ve talked about moving it to a venue but there’s an added cost. There’s lots of planning involved but having it in our yard is great. There’s no cost,” Chard said.

Chard said he was thankful for all of the support, and Kidsability were very happy to receive the donation.

“It was a great day," he said. "And I have good friends and family, so the ticket was covered.”

For anyone wanting to hold a public event in Cambridge, they can visit the special event application page at the city here.