Funds raised for injured hydro worker at blooperball playoffs

The Walden Men's Blooperball League paid tribute to one of its own on the weekend during the league's playoffs at the Oja Sports Complex in Lively.

Gonzague (Gonzo) Lessard has been a member of the league for more than a decade, according to Total Personnel Solutions teammate Tom Rumley.

“Gonzo's always the first one to the field, always puts the bases out, does all the work,” Rumley said. “He's just a super guy. He's a real integral part of the team.”

On July 28, Lessard, a Greater Sudbury Utilities employee, was involved in a workplace accident, along with another employee of the company. While conducting service line changes, the two came into contact with a live cable. While his co-worker was released from the St. Joseph's Health Centre without treatment, Lessard was transported to the Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, where he remains under medical care.

Ward 2 Coun. and league member Jacques Barbeau said there were severe injuries to 50 per cent of Lessard's body, and there was a chance he could lose an arm.

“It seems like that's not going to happen now,” the councillor said.

Lessard has been undergoing multiple surgeries at the Toronto hospital to do skin grafts, which “seem to be taking,” Barbeau said. “At this point, he is in an induced coma most of the time because of the pain. The last report we got, all his internal organs were fine and that's good news.”

Barbeau helped organize a fundraising barbecue during the league's playoffs to help raise funds for the Lessard family. The fundraiser is something he has been organizing for the past four years and, typically, the money (about $2,000) is given to Pull for a Cure, “but with a fellow in the league being injured this year, we thought it would be a good cause to send money his way.”

It will be at the family's discretion how the money is used, “whether they give it to Sunnybrook burn unit, or they use it for some of the incidentals they don't expect to come up, whatever they choose,” said Barbeau, adding $300 worth of donations had been collected at Tom Davies Square on Friday.

Rumley, who is a retired hydro worker, said it means a lot “when we have a cause that's for one of our own.

“It's a very freak accident. His injuries are devastating,” Lessard's teammate said. “I hope he's doing well, hope everything works out for him.”