Raising funds with Christmas spirit
Accountants have been raising money for Empty Stocking Fund and Langley Christmas Bureau
For Langley’s business community, accountant Wayne Kuyer’s turn at playing Jacob Marley from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol has become almost as much of a tradition as the cherished seasonal tale.
For 21 years, Kuyer has dressed in period top hat and tails to visit businesses and evoke some of the story’s giving spirit for a charity campaign that has added up to an astonishing $250,000 for The Province’s Empty Stocking Fund and Langley Christmas Bureau.
“Ultimately it is an impressive total, but in the end it really isn’t about me and our offices,” said Kuyer, proprietor of Kuyer & Associates. “It’s about people in the business community recognizing this is an opportunity for them to help out.”
Kuyer and then-business partner Stephen de Verteuil started the tradition in 1996. Both loved A Christmas Carol and thought it would be a fun theme to use while visiting the community, de Verteuil as Ebenezer Scrooge and Kuyer as Marley, to raise money and spread seasonal joy.
“When you go in character, you can do a lot more fun things and people are much more inviting with respect to your message, in terms of fundraising,” Kuyer said.
Sadly, de Verteuil developed cancer and died in 2002, but Kuyer carried on under the banner of The Scrooge & Marley Christmas Fund, in honour of his partner, who became devoted to the cause, and because the campaign was gathering such momentum.
The Scrooge & Marley fund takes in $20,000 or so per year, which Kuyer accepts as a comfortable goal.
“I used to be hard on myself because I wanted to grow it and grow it,” Kuyer said.
This year, he will also have some help. One of the firm’s associates, Kyle Murray asked to join the effort and will don his own vest and tails as kindly clerk Bob Cratchit.
“It’s become a tradition for a lot of people in the business community,” Kuyer said. “We’re somewhat creatures of habit, but it’s also recognition there are people in the community that aren’t as well off as others.”
The Scrooge & Marley fund will collect funds up to Dec. 18, and Kuyer, with his new sidekick Murray, is hoping to maintain pace to collect another $20,000. Up to this year, it has contributed $98,170 to the Empty Stocking Fund.
Last year, more than $270,000 was donated to the Empty Stocking Fund by people from all over B.C. The fund, administered by the United Way, is in its 99th year. The campaign continues until Jan. 15, 2018.