Major bottle fundraiser honours Joey Moss, renamed Joey and Friends Empties

The Winnifred Stewart Association, which helps people with developmental disabilities, is honouring Joey Moss by renaming a long-standing fundraiser after him.

A rebranded Edmonton fundraiser held its kickoff event – call it a bottle ‘drive’ – on Thursday at a west-end golf course.

Joey & Friends Empties was introduced in the morning at the start of the annual Joey Moss Memorial Golf Classic held at the Ranch Golf and Country Club.

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The Winnifred Stewart Association (WSA) renamed the fundraiser formerly called Empties to Winn in honour of Moss, who was long associated with the longstanding Edmonton organization that helps people with developmental disabilities lead fulfilling lives and become integral members of the community.

The bottle fundraiser collects about seven million bottles per year, with the money earned from them helping support the WSA’s group homes and people living in the community, said Emily Ruttan, the association’s chief executive officer.

The WSA created the golf tournament in 2019, a year before Moss passed away at age 57. The tournament supports the Joey Moss Memorial Fund, which continues his “legacy of advocating for employment and other meaningful opportunities for people with diverse abilities,” according to WSA.

Moss found his first job through WSA. It led to long-time work for both the Edmonton Oilers and the Edmonton Elks.

Joey & Friends Empties pays tribute to Moss’s job at a bottle depot, where he showed the dedication, spirit and work ethic that he took with him to the local sports teams.

“He had a really, really meaningful career and was a huge part of those communities,” Ruttan told CTV News Edmonton, referring to Moss’s work with the Oilers and the Elks.

“The reason we bring this up is that there are lots of people with developmental disabilities who can make an awesome contribution to our community, especially if they’re given a chance to work, have a purpose in life, volunteer and have a really meaningful job.

“We wanted to highlight that Joey has friends. And Joey had lots of friends. He had friends who were Oilers, Elks, but he also had lots of friends that lived at Winifred Stewart, where he lived, and those folks, too, need access to employment opportunities, someone to take a chance on them.

“What we’re sure of, when people do that, is that it’s going to be good for the employer and also good for the person.”

Dr. Winnifred Stewart, whose son was born with Down syndrome, helped create the Edmonton association/school for children with developmental disabilities that eventually bore her name in 1953. The school was the first of its kind in Canada. From 1954 to 1970, she organized and founded other such schools in 19 communities across western Canada.