Town aids Medicine Hat after storm

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Town of Strathmore has donated $2,500 to aid Medicine Hat and Cypress County in their recovery efforts following damage caused by adverse weather conditions. 

According to a release, the donation is kicking off a community campaign to help Medicine Hat and Cypress County as the municipalities clean up from a violent thunderstorm which passed through the area on July 18, causing extensive damage.

Strathmore Mayor Pat Fule said the Town is cognizant of being a neighbour to several nearby cities and towns, and wants to help out in any way it can.

“We know that Strathmore’s residents may have family and friends in that Medicine Hat area, so we wanted to get involved in making a donation that could be of help to the residents who may be in need,” said Fule, who has also challenged the community to match the Town’s donation, should residents wish to get involved and contribute to relief efforts. 

“It’s one way of supporting people in our province who may be in need, and I know we’ve done it with other centers when they’ve been faced with forest fires, or we sent some things to High River during the flood of 2013 as well,” said Fule. “We know that Strathmore residents are amazing as far as stepping up, so we wanted to give them a chance, if people are interested, to add to our amount.”

Fule credited the Town CAO Kevin Scoble, and the upper administrative team for getting the conversation off the ground. 

With the logistics more than handled, Fule added that Town Council was more than happy to approve helping the town’s neighbours. 

“We’re really happy to try to support people who went through that really difficult weather event. It was close to being a tornado from what I understand, and a lot of damage was done,” said Fule. “Many people lost important things, houses were damaged, vehicles were damaged; so we were proud of our administrative team and our town staff for being so willing to help out like this.”

For those who are interested in contributing, residents and businesses are being encouraged to drop off monetary donations at the Strathmore Municipal Building until Aug. 2. 

All funds donated will go directly to the City of Medicine Hat to coordinate with afflicted areas.

Ultimately, Fule said he hopes the Strathmore community will go so far as to match the Town’s donation.

Updates on the campaign will be posted to the Town’s social media and a final donation total will be made public on Aug. 3.