The Betty Riel Foundation to Host a Highland Fling Alongside Elgin Pipe and Drum Band

Local charity coordinates with Elgin pipe band to host a night of entertainment.

On Saturday, November 21st at 7:30 P.M, non-profit The Betty Riel Foundation and the Elgin Pipe and Drum Band will host a “Riel” Highland Fling at Chateauguay Valley Regional High School. All funds raised will go to The Betty Riel Foundation, a local charity dedicated to providing transportation to cancer patients through Service d’Accompagnement Bénévole et Communautaire (SABEC).

Organized largely by band members Raymond Stonehouse (who is also a driver with SABEC) and Wanda Goundrey, the event will be an evening of entertainment, featuring dancers from Montreal’s dance troupe The Montreal Highland Dance Association, as well as a performance by local folk singers Stewart Burrows and Daidhid Fraser. The Elgin Pipe and Drum band will perform, not to mention countless other locals who have come together for the cause, making for an evening of good old fashioned fun. Visitors can also partake in a raffle organized by the charity.

The Elgin Pipe and Drum Band isn’t new to non-profit work—they’ve hosted fundraisers in the past, with previous efforts going to support Rockburn’s St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church. “We wanted to branch out a little in the community, which is why we approached the foundation,” said Goundry.

The Betty Riel Foundation, which is based out of Huntington, has provided 291 trips into the city and surrounding areas to local cancer patients in the past six months alone, coming to a total of $17,070. “We provide the first 11 trips for the patients,’ says founder Betty Riel. ‘We’ve been averaging about 50 trips a month, coming to about $3000. These funds are all from fundraising efforts. I want people to know, that yes, it is them, that really keep The Betty Riel Foundation going.” The foundation services the entire MRC.

The last fundraising efforts made by the foundation were in August, at the Rennie’s Antique Show in Hinchinbrooke, where members sold the late Nicole Gauthier’s handicrafts to raise funds for the effort.

For more information, or to reserve tickets to the show, call 450-264-3570.