AJ Cleary, the victim of an avalanche near Lumby, with his wife.
Image Credit: Silver Star Mountain Resort
March 17, 2014 - 3:48 PM
VERNON - Nearly $85,000 has been raised in support of the family of a Vernon man killed in an avalanche March 10.
A.J. Cleary was snowmobiling with a group near Keefer Lake, east of Lumby when the avalanche buried him in snow. Cleary's wife Laura was pregnant with the couple's first child when the accident occurred. Rescuers dug him out and he was airlifted to Kelowna General but he didn’t survive.
Silver Star Resort employed Cleary last summer as a part-time downhill biking coach and came up with an idea to help his family, creating the Baby Cleary Trust fund. The resort donated the first $1,000. Another fund called the AJ Cleary Memorial Fund organized by family and friends has ballooned to $84,711, with 905 contributors in seven days.
Cleary was also employed by Vernon Jubiliee Hospital and they're helping the fundraising effort by taking donations for Baby Cleary Trust at the Vernon Jubilee Hospital Foundation office at 2191 32 St., Vernon, B.C. Donations can be made online at the AJ Cleary Memorial Fund website, or at their TD Bank fund using Account # 6099921 Branch code # 98860, Bank Code # 004. Donations can also be mailed to Baby Cleary Trust, 3108 33 Avenue, Vernon, care of Vantage One Credit Union, Vernon.
To contact the reporter for this story, email Charlotte Helston at chelston@infotelnews.ca, call 250-309-5230.
— This story was corrected Tuesday, March 18 to show the AJ Cleary Memorial Fund and the Silver Star Resort Baby Cleary Trust fund are separate fund raising avenues. Proceeds for both will go to Cleary's wife Laura and their baby.
News from © iNFOnews, 2014