Mike Goertz from Strathmore is fundraising for one of his childhood best friends Tasha Van Wezel-Swiderski, who is currently battling advanced-phased breast cancer. Now living in Blackfalds, Goertz is hoping to help cover the cost of her costly treatment in Arizona in a unique way.

“We came up with the Jellybean Count. The Blackfalds RCMP filled the containers for me and sealed them. They're currently stored at the Blackfalds RCMP detachment locked up in an office so no one else can see it so there's no unfair advantage for anybody. We're just trying to get her the money to finish her treatments,” Goertz explained.  

Goertz has put in extra effort to ensure everything is run fairly with the contest.  

“I investigated it for probably 2.5-3 weeks every night after work just to make sure that I could do it on a legal platform and make sure that it was fair, secure, and everything was transparent and traceable,” he added.  

The jellybeans are in an 18.9 litre container and a guess costs $50 that is being accepted through E-transfer. If two people guess the correct amount of jellybeans or are the same distance away from the correct answer, there will be a Marshmallow Count tie breaker. The Grand Prize is a 2023 Ford Bronco.  

Tasha was first diagnosed with a desmoid tumour in her chest in 2001 but due to the tumour's location treatment has been difficult. A medical facility in Arizona is giving her specialized treatment without invasive surgery but the treatment is costly. A GoFundMe account set up in Tasha’s honour is halfway to its $250,000 goal but Goertz would like to see more donations to help her and her family.  

Earlier this year, Goertz ran a CrossFit Challenge in support of Tasha that fundraised $2,500 but he wanted to come up with something a little more substantial.  

“When we heard about it, I called a good friend of mine, he lives in Ponoka now. He and I did a CrossFit workout called Murph. That's a one-mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats, followed by a one-mile run. We did that to raise money and we had a silent auction table... I just felt like I could do more. My heart was just telling me to do more,” explained Goertz.  

Goertz has a goal of selling 4,000 tickets with the contest closing on July 31st, full contest rules can be found here. 

“I just really want this to succeed so we can pay that off so that her family doesn't have to worry about the money. She's got three younger boys at home, all under the age of I believe 15. They're just starting a new business. It's just a lot and I just wanted to see if I could do whatever I could do to get that financial burden off of them.”  

You can find all the details on the contest rules at the MURFT 2023 Ford Bronco Contest page on Facebook.  

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