P.E.I. glass bottle village close to $100,000 fundraising goal for IWK

Gar Gillis has been working at Hannah’s Bottle Village in Point Prim, P.E.I., for more than 20 years.

He started in 2002 with a church built for his grandson. The next year he added a general store for his granddaughter, and the year after that school.

It wasn’t long after people started stopping by to see it.

The 74-year-old says he could have turned it into a business, but he came up with a better idea. Gillis started taking donations for the IWK, the region’s children’s hospital, and the longer he stayed open and more he built, the more money he raised.

“The first year I got $565, so I had the bar set at $10,000, but then the second, third, fourth, I was getting more and more,” said Gillis. “Then I set the bar at $50,000, wasn’t long and I passed that. Then I set the bar at $100,000.”

Each building takes thousands of bottles and two to three months to put together. The Tea House is the latest finished, or refinished. It was blown down during post-tropical storm Fiona, but Gillis rebuilt it.

He put a big "JR" right in the wall, his mother’s initials. It sits not too far from a lighthouse named for his father.

People come from near and far. Friday alone saw visitors from the U.K., Georgia, U.S.A., and B.C.

“Oh my goodness. I had somebody from Italy, and then a couple that were from South America, a little island off of South America, and if you look in the guestbook,” said Gillis. “They’re from all over. All over. Sweden, Norway, you name it.”

Gillis said he's got plans for expansion in his Sherwood Forest, adding dozens more trees and pathways through them.

At last count Sunday evening Gillis had raised $99,492, but told us he expects to hit his goal within a week.

What about when Gar Gillis reaches that $100,000 goal? He says he’s not going to stop. He’s going to bump it up to $150,000, and he’s going to keep using this to raise money for kids in need.

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