At age 87, Joe Hittel feels too old to take part in hiking or cycling fundraisers.
But give him a rope and Hittel will rappel down 20-storey building, no problem.
He’s done this many times to raise money for the children’s Make-A-Wish Foundation — tacking both the 13-storey Stantec Building on Red Deer’s Ross Street, as well as the 23-storey Coast Edmonton Plaza.
“The taller the building, the more time I have to relax,” said Hittel, who’s planning a less death-defying stunt on Wednesday.
Dressed in his trademark green Leprechaun outfit, he plans to rides in a Mr. Motor’s vintage truck in the Westerner Days Parade.
Mr. Motors owner, Grayson Averill, has been a regular supporter of Hittel’s cause, most recently donating $1,500 towards helping make a sick child’s wish come true.
The local father of five — soon to be six — children, Averill said he’s donated a total of about $5,000 to Hittel’s fundraisers since 2020. “You hope you will never need them,” he said, but Averill’s glad the Make-A-Wish Foundation exists to make the lives of very sick children a little brighter.
Through various rappelling efforts, Hittel has collected $143,000 for the foundation since 2018, contributing from $15,000 to $60,000 every year.
It usually takes about $10,000 to pull off one child’s wish, he explained — from taking a kid, his nurse and whole family to Disney World, to getting another child (in one case) to go for a ride in a Tesla with his hero, Elon Musk.
“They treat the kids like kings and queens,” said Hittel, a former Saskatchewan farmer.
Several years after his wife died, Hittel began pondering how he could make a difference. He decided to devote himself to supporting the Make-A-Wish Foundation. As a father, stepfather, grandfather, great-grandfather and now great-great-grandfather, Hittel said he was drawn to the charity because what it does for ailing children.
Averill hopes to inspire other corporations and citizens to step up and make a donation.
“Give what you can. A little bit is better than nothing,” Averill said on Tuesday. (For more information, or to make a donation, please visit Mr. Motors Facebook Page.)
The Westerner Days Parade will be held for the first time since 2019 on Wednesday morning — starting from 9:30 a.m. from the Red Deer Tennis Club.
The parade route will continue east on 43rd Street, north on 47th Avenue behind the museum. It will turn west onto Ross Street at Jackpot Casino, and then turn north at City Hall on 48th Avenue for a couple blocks before turning west on 52nd Street, south on 49th Avenue, east on 46th Street and south on 48th Avenue.
For more information, please visit westernerdays.ca.
lmichelin@reddeeradvocate.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter