Hike for Hospice goes this May
By Adelle Ellis, Times Reporter
After cancelling last year’s event due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Wheatland and Area Hospice Society’s (WAHS) Hike For Hospice is back this year in a virtual format.
From May 1 to 10, participants can register online at wheatlandhospice.ca and they can join a team, donate independently and/or gather pledges.
“The event, Hike for Hospice, is a national program, but all funds raised in a local community stay in the local community,” said WAHS director Teri McKinnon. “Funds raised bring awareness to grieving families in Wheatland County and allows them to access the help they need, when they need it, in their own community.”
After registering, participants are encouraged to set a goal of either miles walked for the 10 days, or money raised. Participants can walk, run and/or hike anytime and anywhere.
The WAHS has a goal of raising $10,000 during Hike for Hospice this year.
To sign up for Hike for Hospice and/or to donate, visit wheatlandhospice.ca. Raised monies, either in cash or in cheque format, along with pledge sheets, can be dropped off at Gray’s Ltd. in Strathmore.
Currently entering their sixth year, to date WAHS has raised $1.7 million of their $3 million goal.
Farming for Hospice
The third annual Farming for Hospice fundraiser is set to kick off in Carseland for the second year in a row. Nutrien’s Carseland Nitrogen Operations has provided a quarter section of land to be seeded with 45CS canola provided by Pioneer.
Several local farmers and various agricultural businesses previously donated the farming operations, such as seeding, spraying, swathing and harvesting. All monies raised from the sale of the crop, pending the yield and price of the commodity, go to WAHS’s goal of building a local hospice.
WAHS will source all crop inputs including seed, chemical, fertilizer and insurance, through sponsored inputs and acre donations for the 160 acres.
To help cover those costs, donors are encouraged to “purchase” an acre of land worth of inputs, valued at $300 each; however, donations can be made in any amount and donors are invited to sponsor as many acres as they wish. Charitable receipts will be issued for all gifts.
Donations can be made on the WAHS website under “ways to give” and “donate”, where you choose Wheatland Hospice Farming For Hospice 2021, or by mailing a cheque to the WAHS.
Tell Me Your Story Please
To celebrate their fifth-year anniversary last year, WAHS published “Tell Me Your Story Please, a journal to record family memories and reflections. The colourful journal features illustrations by local students and space to record memories, and is on sale at the Strathmore Municipal Library and Value Drug Mart for $10 each.