By Rhonda Massad
www.thesuburban.com
The annual fundraising calendar produced by the Laval Police to help head trauma victims has raised more than $200,000 in the past five years for the Fondation Martin Matte. The 2015 calendar was launched at Laval police headquarters on Thursday, Oct. 30.
The calendars are available for five dollars at all Laval police stations, Lava IGA grocery stores and on the Martin Matte website. Each month has an outstanding image of a member of the canine squad.
The dog squad associated itself with this fundraiser to commemorate the death of Const. Éric Lavoie, who died of a head trauma, the product of an on-duty car accident.
Each year in Quebec there are more than 13,000 new victims of head trauma of whom 3,600 will not regain their autonomy—an average of about ten people every day of the year.
Three out of four victims are male under the age of 35. In the case of children 30 per cent of head trauma is caused by sports and recreational activity.
The Fondation Martin Matte, which builds specialized homes and supports activity centres for head trauma victims, was founded by Martin Matte in 2007 after his brother Christian suffered a head trauma in 1998.