A day at the beach for Oak Bay’s Lucas Cunliffe and his uncle Paul Lewis could pay off big for their charity of choice. The pair spent Mother’s Day building a Steller’s Jay for auction.
Lewis is the Langford artist known for creating stunning bird art at Esquimalt Lagoon. Lucas is the well-known advocate and fundraiser for the Juvenile Diabetes Reasearch Foundation.
Lucas lives with Type 1 diabetes and the Oak Bay family supports the JDRF in hopes of finding a cure and raising awareness.
With T1D the pancreas does not produce insulin, a hormone that helps the body control sugar levels in the blood. Without insulin, glucose builds. The cause is unknown and it is not preventable. More than 300,000 Canadians live with T1D.
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Each year they host a Fashion Fundraiser on the lawn during Garagellenium (June 9 this year) among other events. This year, Lewis and Lucas built a Steller’s Jay to include in the fundraising.
“He made that piece for us to auction off,” said Lucas’ dad Michael Cunliffe. Lewis is getting busy still crafting seaside at the lagoon, but getting more and more commercial work, but found time to build the artwork with Lucas.
“We want to make sure we get that again for June 10 so the auction for the piece ends on June 3,” Cunliffe said. Bidding closes June 3 in an effort to gather all their funds ahead of the June 10 JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes (register at JDRF.ca/walk) at Westhills Stadium in Langford.
Find the auction at facebook.com/events/1985140778468093/.
cvanreeuwyk@oakbaynews.com
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