Harvest Wrap-Up Concert raises money for hospice society
By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Drew Gregory and the Wheatland and Area Hospice Society (WAHS) are hosting a concert to cap off their 2021 Farming for Hospice campaign.
Gregory has partnered with the WAHS to perform the special show, in part to fulfil a charity criteria for Project Wild, a contest hosted by 95.3 Wild FM, of which Gregory is a top 12 finalist.
“One of the challenges is a charity challenge and so you’ve got to work with charity … and you get points (based) on the kind of impact you have on the charity or people that use the charity,” said Gregory.
At the Harvest Wrap-Up concert, he will be performing live at the Strathmore Golf Course alongside special guests Blake Reid, Ryan Langlois and Lyndsay Butler.
Gregory said he wanted to do something for the community that would extend beyond any one of the local towns within the county.
“I wanted something, rather than doing just a fundraiser for Standard, or just a fundraiser for one thing in Strathmore, (the WAHS) kind of encompasses all of it and then they also have the Farming for Hospice aspect of it.”
Gregory is one of top 12 contestants competing in Project Wild, competing for a significant prize pool to go towards working on their music. The top three finalists and then the winner of the contest will be announced in March.
“They really encourage you through this Project Wild to identify things with your brand and really work with that kind of thing too,” Gregory explained of part of the process of the contest.
“You have to do a whole marketing plan and so, some of (the winnings are) going to be tour support, recording and branding. You’ve got to write out what you’re going to do if you win the money – that’s one of the other challenges.”
Gregory was in a similar challenge in 2010, the Country 105 Rising Star competing for $5,000.
The ultimate goal of the Harvest Wrap-Up show is to raise money for the WAHS through the sale of concert tickets, by selling raffle tickets and sponsoring acres for the Farming for Hospice fundraiser.
Tickets are already sold out for the concert, though there are still a few acres that need to be spoken for, as well as plenty of raffle tickets left.
“Our goal is to sell out all 160 acres … by the 27th, just so that can be a celebration of ‘look, we sold it out.’ And if there’s some left, then that night, we can try to push the rest,” said Gregory.
As of Nov. 15, roughly 120 acres of the 160-acre goal had been sold.
Gregory is calling the effort the “Harvest Wrap-Up Acre Blitz” as part of his redoubled efforts to get the land sponsored, which has been so far successful.
“Our original plan was to add a little more incentive – we were going to do a raffle draw for anybody who had bought an acre … but Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC) will not allow you to ever add an incentive to a charitable donation. We ended up just doing a fully different raffle, so we’ve also got the Harvest Wrap-Up Raffle going on now too.”
Speaking to the raffle, there are two large prizes available for those who purchase tickets. One is a private concert by Drew Gregory for up to 40 people with free beer sponsored by Origin Brewery and a deal on catering provided by Hunger Paynes.
The second prize is Bayer’s private box suite for the Calgary Flames hockey game versus the Vancouver Canucks on Jan. 29, 2022 for eight people, donated by Core Ag.
Gregory added the Harvest Wrap-Up Concert is something he would be very interested in continuing in future years by making it an annual event for the WAHS.
“This is something we want to do every single year … we sold out the golf course (concert) pretty quick, maybe next year we make it a bigger gala style event.”
Gregory also plans to release videos on his social media over the next two weeks talking about the impact of the hospice society and what it is that they do there from current palliative care to trying to get a hospice built.
Details regarding the raffle tickets, Farming for Hospice and the concert can be found online at the Hospice Society’s website and tickets can be purchased online for any of the fundraisers, even if you don’t have a concert ticket. The concert itself is scheduled for Nov. 27.
As per provincial mandates, proof of vaccination via QR scan, or negative COVID-19 test from within the last 72 hours is required for entry.
With files from Adelle Ellis