Michael Eubanks (centre), Lenni Eubanks, right, and their son Owen on left.Supplied
The organizer: Michael Eubanks
The pitch: Donating $25,000
The cause: Scholarships for students at York University
Lenni Eubanks and her husband Michael had just turned 50 when they went for a routine check for colon cancer.
Mr. Eubanks was cleared but Ms. Eubanks had experienced some symptoms and by the time she was examined, doctors found a tumour. “It started as colon cancer but had spread and eventually got to the liver,” Mr. Eubanks recalled.
Ms. Eubanks died last November at the age of 51 after an 18-month battle. She’d come from a humble background in Toronto and created a charity called My First Wheels which collected and distributed used bicycles to children living in the city’s low-income neighbourhoods.
“Our family couldn’t afford much, but when I was 12, I was lucky enough to be given my first bike,” Ms. Eubanks wrote on the charity’s website. The bicycle “opened up my world. It gave me a sense of freedom, confidence, independence and sheer happiness,” she added.
Mr. Eubanks said his wife “always put her heart first as it relates to influencing, mentoring, coaching and giving back.” Her motto, he added, was “do well so you can do good.”
In her honour, Mr. Eubanks has donated $25,000 to establish the Lenni Eubanks Memorial Award at York University where the couple met as students. The scholarship will provide up to $1,000 to a student in need to encourage them to excel and eventually give back. “It really starts with folks in need and then we hope that this kind of spurs them on to want to do good and give back to their community,” he said.
Mr. Eubanks said My First Wheels has had to regroup in the wake of Ms. Eubanks’s death, but their son Owen, 21, is determined to keep it going. He’d helped his mother for years as a kind of bike tester and cleaner. “So it’s near and dear to his heart,” Mr. Eubanks said. “He wants the charity to be his legacy, and her legacy.”