Orem blogger creates Harry Potter-themed event for local charity

(Kaylynn Young)


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PROVO — After watching an Imagine Dragons' music video and learning about a local charity, an Orem woman felt inspired to help and is putting on a Harry-Potter themed event to raise money for the foundation.

During the spring of 2014, lifestyle blogger and mother Kaylynn Young said she and her husband were going through a rough patch in life and just having "a really, really hard time." They watched the Imagine Dragons' "Demons" music video and she said the song really resonated with them and their situation.

"Basically, everybody's got their crap and you don't know, you might not see it, but everybody's got something that's really hard that they are dealing with," Young said. "And this music video just related to us and we watched it over and over."

The music video was dedicated to local Tyler Robinson who lost his fight against cancer in 2013. Soon after, Imagine Dragons created the Tyler Robinson Foundation, a charity designed to raise money for families with pediatric cancer patients. The end of the music video shows a clip of Robinson at an Imagine Dragons concert in Provo and Young said she was so touched by the video that she wanted to do something for the foundation.

"We researched it more and found out what the foundation was and we just instantly fell in love," Young said. "We'd been kind of talking for a few months like, 'What do we stand for? What are we passionate about?' We saw this and were like, 'This is it. This hits a nerve with us and we need to run with it.' "

Elizabeth Kate Photography

In 2014, Young decided to throw a small Harry Potter-themed fundraiser on her and the character's birthday, July 31. She said around 20 people attended the first event and they raised around $200 for the Tyler Robinson Foundation. However, she felt inspired to recreate the fundraiser on a bigger scale, and in May 2015, she contacted the Shops at the Riverwoods in Provo.

"At Riverwoods, at every event that we do, we connect it with a charity," Shops at Riverwoods marketing director McKell Law said. "I think everyone feels that connection and knows someone who has fought with cancer so everyone felt a connection and we had a lot of people donate a lot of really great things to the auction."

The Harry Potter fundraiser, "Muggles Battle Cancer with Dragons," will be held Friday from 6-9 p.m. at the Riverwoods. The event is free to the public and the first 100 people will receive a free prize of either butterbeer or Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans.

The event will include a costume contest, wand making, a fish pond, a s'mores station and silent auction. All the proceeds from the silent auction will go to the Tyler Robinson Foundation. Additionally, anyone interested in donating directly to the foundation can do so at the event.

The third film, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" will also be shown after dusk.

Young hopes to make the Harry Potter-fundraiser an annual event.

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