BBQ Fundraiser Helps RCMP Officer Fight Cancer

A Steinbach RCMP Officer battling cancer found sustenance Friday afternoon in a very real way.

Constable Ken Friesen has a strain of cancer that is not entirely covered by provincial health care. Recognizing the corresponding financial burden, his daughters, along with the RCMP detachment, took charge and organized a BBQ fundraiser in K. R. Barkman Park. The pork-on-a-bun sale raised hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

“I’m completely overwhelmed by the support. As RCMP, we deal with a lot of the negatives, but this has been such a positive experience.”

One of the more substantial donations, $1,000, came from the Local Matters Thrift Store in Steinbach. “The RCMP have cared about Local Matters, they have helped us out, and local people matter to us,” says Store Owner Chris Geisbrecht.

Friesen himself organized a similar fundraiser for the three-year-old daughter of a fellow officer a few years back. Staff Sergeant Harold Laninga says this is just a small way of paying that kindness forward.

The funds gathered will be going towards the ongoing expenses related to Friesen’s treatment. “We will be good stewards of those funds as well,” he says still “and hopefully we can assist others with it too. That’s the goal.”

Friesen was glad his daughters took the initiative to help him out, acknowledging that his health complication has been hard on them too. “They’ve had a really tough time and I’m trying to encourage them through this, telling them that it will all turn out okay."

He also calls out his officers for their remarkable presence at the event.

“A lot of my colleagues are working nights, they worked last night, and they’re working tonight, yet they still came out here to serve,” he shares. “The RCMP is a family. You hear that all of the time. But when difficulties arise you certainly understand what the meaning of that is.”