A local business owner has set up an online fundraiser to help the family of a cyclist who was struck on Grey Road 1.
On Monday, July 6th, Heidi Smith-Tones was riding her bicycle along the road near Wiarton, when she was hit by a vehicle and left with life-threatening injuries.
On Thursday, her friend Christine Arezzi, who owns Bluewater Lavender Farm, started a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for Smith-Tones’s family while she recovers in a Toronto hospital.
“She’s so incredible,” said Arezzi of her friend. “She’s involved in so many different community initiatives… We started, a couple years ago, an Empty Bowls initiative and she was part of the committee, we started a bike bus in Wiarton that we were both on, biking kids to school every Wednesday morning. [She’s] always participating and involved in so many different charitable initiatives in our community. That’s why the community is so devastated. [Heidi] is so warm, and just a lovely, lovely person.”
Arezzi is also using the fundraiser as a call to anyone in the area who may have witnessed the incident to come forward.
She explained that not many details to the incident are known, so she’s making a personal appeal to anyone who was in the area on Monday at around 11:36 am and anyone with dashcam footage to contact police.
In the GoFundMe post, Arezzi wrote, “As Heidi fights for her recovery, Timothy is by her side in Toronto for the foreseeable future. This means ongoing expenses for parking, food, and daily living away from home. Many of their children live outside of Toronto and will need to travel back and forth to be with their mom and support their dad during this incredibly difficult time.”
“I spoke to her husband, Timothy… he’s very, very appreciative of the community, reaching out, asking what everybody can do to help, and he’s so appreciative of that.”
The fundraising goal is set at $15,000. You can donate here.
Anyone who witnessed the incident or has video footage is asked to contact the OPP at 1-888-310-1122, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).