“Now I realize how big our Village family really is and how anything is possible," says chairkid Madi

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Target set, target met. By a whisker. A certain cat’s whisker.

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You may recall we announced $260,000 as the goal for the 2025 Sun Christmas Fund for Variety Village.

At the launch in November, chairkid Madison “Madi” Ambos, 12 — who is technically my boss — wrinkled her brow and opined: “I dunno. That’s a big number!”

No kidding. It’s nearly double the tally in our best previous campaign.

Yet, miraculously, we were achingly close at the New Year’s Day deadline — just a couple hundred bucks shy.

Enter Tulip, my cat. She ponied up $500 against future sales of her new adventure, Viking Cat 2 — Lost in the City, bringing us to a whopping $260,376.

“Whoooa!” says Madi. “I didn’t know cats had money.”

Sure they do, Miss Chairkid. Why do you think God invented catalogs?

Tulip’s ante, of course, was just the tip of the charitable iceberg. The honour roll of some 900 donors spanned the GTA and Canada, and reached as far as Poland. It included the likes of ‘Voice of the Maple Leafs’ Joe Bowen, Blue Jays’ legendary leader Paul Beeston, the Village’s own Volt cart-hockey team, Legion Branch 13, family trusts, charities like the Canadian Foundation for Physically Disabled Persons and a raft of Toronto Sun staff, including Tim Peckham, the guy who laid out this page.

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“A million thank-yous,” Madi says. “Now I realize how big our Village family really is and how anything is possible.

“This will help a lot of kids like me, a lot of families. I just think it’s amazing.”

Sure is. Our previous best was $139,210 in 2023. This time, we zoomed past that number the first week in December.

The Sun news team can take a bow for making my Fund........

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