East Sounding Creek 4-H Beef Club Raises $63,100 for HALO Air Ambulance
Submitted by: Shelaine Woods
East Sounding Creek 4-H Beef Club, Oyen Alberta
The Hanna Agri-Sports Complex was electric as “Hot Shot” the East Sounding Creek 4-H Club’s Charity Steer entered the ring on Saturday June 11! “Hot Shot” was joined by 42 enthusiastic East Sounding Creek 4-H Members, representatives from the Government of Alberta, Special Areas, Oyen Food Bank and the Cereal Volunteer Fire Department. Our hearts were full as our auction started, the cheering escalated, and the bids started to accumulate. After the dust settled, and in the days following the auction our Grand Total grew to an incredible $63,100! Every. Single. Cent. donated directly to HALO Air Ambulance. We would like to brag just a little bit…. Our donation of $63,100 is HALO’s largest 4-H donation EVER! But, that isn’t where the story starts or ends.
Let’s go back to October 2021 when our club was kicking off the season. East Sounding Creek members from Sedalia, Cereal, Esther, Bindloss, Sibbald & Oyen were getting geared up for another great year of 4-H. A few parents started to toss around the idea of a Charity Steer. The goal of our charity project was to teach our members the value of giving back, working hard to touch as many lives as possible and the importance of community stewardship. It was decided that HALO Air Ambulance was the perfect recipient for our efforts. We didn’t want to stop there. We took it one step further and decided that the beef from “Hot Shot” should be donated to the Oyen Food Bank. Every aspect of our charity steer project would touch the lives of those in our community.
Why did we choose HALO Air Ambulance? Rural communities are dependent of the life saving critical care and transport capacity of our integrated air ambulance network. Founded in 2007 HALO Air Ambulance is the only dedicated medivac helicopter for southern Alberta. The availability of the helicopter improves response time to critically ill or injured victims in remote or inaccessible areas and increases the coverage area for delivering quality medical care. HALO works closely with local municipalities, EMS, Fire Departments, RCMP and Search & Rescue to provide necessary services and ensure that the unique needs of rural communities are met. HALO is a not-for-profit organization funded primarily through donations by community partners and proudly sports a 4-H logo on the side of its HALO 1 helicopter to acknowledge that 4-H is the single largest fundraising facilitator for HALO!
The Oyen & District Food Bank has helped ensure the basic need of food is met for the residents of the Oyen area for 22 years. They provide food bank services as well as emergency hampers as needs arise. The Oyen & District Food Bank is a charitable organization and relies on the goodness of others to provide these essential services. Our big brute “Hot Shot” was able to put 800 pounds of nutritious and high-quality beef into the Oyen & District Food Bank Freezers. That is a lot of families who will benefit from freezers full of beef! Continued page 4
East Sounding Creek 4-H Beef Club would like to Thank our sponsors for working with us to make this fundraiser a success.
The Norris Family of Sibbald. Greg, Jerilyn, Cash, Coleman, Camrie and Cooper, Brian, Heather and Sydnee donated the steer and provided caretaking throughout the year. A special Thank You to Cooper for all his efforts to work with “Hot Shot” and for all the love he gave him.
Trouw Nutrition for providing all the feed and supplements for “Hot Shot” throughout the season. An estimated value of $2000.
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. for sponsoring the costs of meat processing.
Rosehill Auction Services for donating auction services and using your talents to set the stage for an amazing sale!
John Murray, Greg & Jerilyn Norris and Shelaine Woods for their hours organizing and promoting our Charity Steer to potential donors.
This fundraiser would not have been a success if it wasn’t for the generosity of our donors! There are no words to properly describe how overwhelmingly grateful we are to each one of you. Please be sure to acknowledge these contributors: RES Global Renewable Energy, Borea Construction, Stach Farms Charolais, Pattern Energy, Clayridge Farms, Rocking Hill Farms, B.E. Oilfield Service, SaskAlta Farms, Clarbyrn Farms, Tomkins Earthworks, Integrity Ranches, Trevor & Lynne Lyster, Twin R Ranching, Grant & Keli Brockmann, Neilson Mechanical, G-Mac’s Ag Team, Doug & Shelley Norris, Footprint Farms, Cory & Nikki Duque, Scott & Shelaine Woods, Tyler Masich, Current Contracting & Technologies Ltd, Tamra Breit, Adam & Brandi Smith, Secure Energy, Bill & Kim Smith, Keaton Duque, Coleman Norris, Superba Ranches, Gary & Barbara Woods and Cophill Cattle. Your donations will help to keep HALO in the air and continue to raise awareness for the importance of air ambulance transport in rural Alberta.
East Sounding Creek 4-H Beef Club is striving to raise leaders of tomorrow and together with our sponsorship partners and donors our members have had an experience of a lifetime! Our goal was to teach our members the value of giving back, working hard to touch as many lives as possible and the importance of community stewardship. On June 29th we had the pleasure of rounding out this learning experience by presenting a cheque to Board Members and Staff of HALO Air Ambulance for $62,850 & with last minute donations a grand total of $63,100. We are so incredibly proud and grateful for our community’s support of 4-H and helping us create change one charity steer at a time!
