A Canadian tailgate part of American Thanksgiving festivities in Detroit is looking to raise thousands for a local cause.
Sal Albano is a branch manager in Windsor with BMO Nesbitt Burns. He's behind a big tailgate party that has seen much of his staff setup at Eastern Market for the National Football League's Detroit Lions Thanksgiving game for the last 15 years.
Albano says the group decided it was time to give back and started raising money for the United Way's Kids Summer Lunch Program.
Last year Albano's group raised $5,000, this year he's raising the bar and hoping to bring in $10,000.
Albano says his tailgate is the biggest in Detroit on Thanksgiving Day and with about 170 people expected to turn up there will be a lot of potential donors.
"For a bunch of canucks across the border to come in on US Thanksgiving and to make that claim, I mean, we've developed great relationships and friendships with American tailgaters, because we're the only ones that provide the Canadian breakfast sandwiches, so they were really intrigued by that," says Albano. "It's a great event and the least we can do."
Looking at all the food on offer at the tailgate sparked the idea to raise money for the United Way's Kids Summer Lunch Program.
"Everyone's got plenty of food here and it's a great event," says Albano. "We decided we wanted to do something for people who don't have a lot of food this time of the year."
He says it was great to see almost 900 kids enjoy summer meals thanks to his tailgate's fund raising.
"Thankfully, I've been blessed where my kids have never had to worry about food, so for me there was that instant connection this summer, so this year we decided to expand on last year's effort and double up on our goal."
As heard on AM800's The Afternoon News, Albano's tailgate was able to provide more than 10,000 lunches to 892 children this past summer in west Windsor and Leamington.
The Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings kick-off at Ford Field at 12:30pm.
- With files from Patty Handysides