The family of a seven-year-old Toronto girl killed while crossing the street is hoping to raise $1 million to build a state-of-the-art playground to remember her by -- and they’ve enlisted some local celebrities to help.
Georgia Walsh, the daughter of the president of the Conservative Party of Canada, John Walsh, was struck and killed by a car in July 2014 while crossing the street just a few blocks from her Leaside home.
To honour her memory, an all-star baseball tournament was held Saturday with special guests including Blue Jays hall of famer Roberto Alomar, Conservative MP John Carmichael and Walter Gretzky, father of Wayne Gretzky.
“I feel Georgia’s spirit here,” her mother, Jillian Walsh, said, standing beside the baseball diamond. “The closer I am to the place that she loved and her community, the closer I feel to her.”
The fundraiser was held at Leaside’s Trace Manes park, near Bayview Avenue and Eglinton Avenue East, and included several baseball games with the GTA’s top minor league players, as well as face-painting, inflatable slides and a chance to meet the sports celebrities. All money raised from the game will go toward a rejuvenation project for the park’s playground.
The project aims to make the playground more accessible for children with disabilities by replacing sand with rubberized tiles and creating specially designed swings.
It’s not the first time money has been raised in the young girl’s name; more than $66,000 was raised at the time of Georgia’s death and donated to Toronto’s Sick Kids Hosptial.
In June, the driver who struck Georgia, 51-year-old Ranko Stupar, was prohibited from driving for two years, forced to pay a $2,000 fine and given a two-year probation. He had been charged with failure to stop at a red light and careless driving.
With files from CTV News Toronto
