WCS benefits from more than $20,000 in donations
By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Photo Courtesy of Amanda Bazant
During the week of Nov. 21, the Wheatland Crisis Society (WCS) received greater than $20,000 in donations from parties aiming to support the organization.
From Premier Auctions and the Daye family, a cheque was written to the WCS in the amount of $16,458.60, which was raised during the sale of two quarters of land near Eagle Lake in June.
As part of the agreement between Premier Auctions and the Daye family, one per cent of the proceeds from the sale would be forwarded to a choice charity organization.
“Typically anything Premier Auctions does, they donate one per cent of the proceeds to a community organization. Cody (Hayes, representing Premier Auctions) is a local Strathmore guy … so he picked us to receive this donation,” explained Natasha Fyfe, speaking on behalf of the WCS. “Andrea (Daye) and her brother came to Strathmore to meet with me and present me with a cheque of just over $16,000. We did a tour of the shelter … they were very appreciative of the services that we offer and were 100 per cent on board with donating that money to our society.”
Fyfe added that she and the WCS were humbled by the donation and would be able to do a lot with $16,000 granted to them outside their anticipated annual budget.
From the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to present day, the need for services through the WCS are up 300 per cent. Though their services are greatly in demand, Fyfe said nobody local would ever be turned away.
“I think it is important to get the message out there for our clients that we are here to support them if they need it, and for our community to know about the hard work we are doing to protect our community members,” said Fyfe. “We have high hopes that we will be able to build a new building in the future. We definitely have services that are growing, and the demand for our services are also growing.”
Separately, a donation of $4,328 was made to the WCS by Royal LePage Benchmark on Nov. 22.
“All of our agents always put a portion of the proceeds of their house sales towards our shelter foundation. We also do fundraising events throughout the year,” said Amanda Bazant, speaking on behalf of Royal LePage Benchmark. “We just try to help them out as much as we can, and we are glad that this will hopefully go to some good things and hopefully to help them out a lot.”
According to Bazant, Royal LePage Benchmark generally makes two donations to the WCS annually, following approximate six-month collection periods between portions of sales and other fundraising initiatives they participate in.
“Having these businesses understand the impact that they have on the region by coming down and seeing a place like the crisis society really helps show them not only what kind of a difference they can make for this region, but how it literally affects every single individual who is here at the shelter,” said Fyfe. “Nothing is ever set in stone. I believe the economy does what it does … we could only hope that they would always be there to help us and support us, and we will do the same for them.”