Family Brought Together As An Early Father's Day Gift

This Father's Day, Ronald McDonald House Charities Canada and WestJet are celebrating dads across the country by surprising one hardworking father.

Four-year-old Joel Grimard, from Prud'homme, Saskatchewan, was diagnosed a few months after birth with tricuspid atresia, a congenital heart condition, and has spent much of his young life in the hospital. Joel's father Marc works in Saskatoon to support the family, while his seven-year-old brother, Mathieu, attends a local Saskatoon school. Angela, the boys' mother, stays with Joel at Ronald McDonald House Northern Alberta while he receives treatment at the Stollery Children's Hospital. Often, the family is separated for weeks at a time. Families across Canada face the same tough choices every day, trying to balance the needs of a family with a sick child against the need to support the family financially.

In honour of Father's Day, Ronald McDonald House Charities Canada, together with WestJet, found a way to bring the Grimard family together without disrupting the family's means of financial support. See and share their story.

"Enriching the lives of everyone in the WestJet world is in our DNA," said Richard Bartrem, WestJet Vice-President, Communications and Community Relations. "The chance to work with our WestJet Cares for Kids partner Ronald McDonald House Charities and local WestJetters to give the Grimard family quality time together is just one way we can demonstrate how caring makes a difference."

"At Ronald McDonald Houses, our families and their children are our heroes. Every day we witness acts of courage and selflessness in the healing of a sick child, especially when a parent and child are separated." said Cathy Loblaw, President and Chief Executive Officer, Ronald McDonald House Charities Canada. "Together, with our incredible partners at WestJet, we were able to bring together the Grimard family, reminding us of the importance of providing a comforting and caring environment for families to be together, during some of life's most difficult times."

Now WestJet, Ronald McDonald House Charities Canada and the Grimard family are sharing their story to celebrate the importance of fathers in the life of a child, and to encourage Canadians across the country to support Canada's 14 Ronald McDonald Houses, their programs and more than 20,000 families with sick children they will serve this year alone.

This Father's Day, in addition to WestJet's everyday support of Ronald McDonald Houses across Canada, WestJet has pledged to bring together even more Ronald McDonald House families with every 100,000 views the video receives, up to 500,000 views.

The charitable tradition of celebrating viewing milestones began with WestJet's 2012 Christmas flash mob video and was repeated in 2013 with the WestJet Christmas Miracle video. Let's work together to unite even more Ronald McDonald House families with our 2014 Father's Day surprise video.

FMI: www.westjet.com