StettlerLocal.com July 5, 2021 @ 4:40PM
The Rotary Club of Stettler joined forces with The Kinsmen Club of Stettler to help raise funds for the Crisis Aid Fund.
The Crisis Aid Program is a volunteer-run program at FCSS that helps people who have critical financial difficulties. The program's board assesses every request for support on a case-by-case basis. Crisis Aid often helps people who fall through cracks of other programs and has provided help with utility bills, medicine, out of town doctor appointments, rent or even help paying deposits to get into housing.
Chris Raab, Stettler Rotary Club President, says that his club was quick to pivot and adapt to fundraising with the challenges presented by COVID. Raab says fellow Rotarian, Kevin Falkenberg suggested partnering with the Kinsmen Club of Stettler.
Kinsmen member, Kirk Blake said it was great having the clubs working together to help expand the reach and allowing them to turn that into more money. Blake said it made it easier to sell tickets, and was great to be able to help Crisis Aid.
“It was collaborative, and not combative, and it was really a nice feeling.” Kirk Blake Stettler Kinsmen
“It was great to see a response from the purchasers seeing Kinsmen and Rotary. It gave it a bit more validity.” - Kevin Falkenberg, Stettler Rotary Club
Ticket sales were available online with members from both clubs also selling in person. Tickets were also available at FCSS. Blake and Falkenburg said there were great benefits to selling online during a time when people weren’t accessible for face to face sales. Blake commented it would be nice to be able to get back to face to face sales for future fundraisers, but certainly wasn’t ready to count online sales out completely. Both men agreed there were pluses and minuses to both options, and those would have to be considered each time.
The Rotary meeting on July 5th, was the first meeting since restrictions had been lifted, and the club could actually meet in person. During this meeting, held over lunch-time at the United Church Christian Education wing, the Rotary Club along with Kinsmen delegate Blake, presented FCSS with a cheque for $2,500 and Diane Bernes was the winner of the 50/50 draw.
Both clubs seemed to be open to the idea of making the joint fundraising effort a yearly thing, most likely raising money for the Crisis Aid Fund each time.
Carson Ellis, Reporter