Fire department and HCC  team up

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

For the third year running, the Strathmore Fire Department and Holy Cross Collegiate (HCC) are engaging in a friendly competition to raise donations for the Wheatland County Food Bank. 

Similar to the previous two years, the Strathmore Fire Department issued the challenge to the school. Over the course of the allotted time, students could bring in any donations to the school, while the fire department distributed donation bags throughout the local community.

“When we pick up the bags, we weigh up the food and see who the winner is, and usually we end up hosting the students for a quick lunch as a thank you for the classes that helped contribute to the food drive,” said David Sturgeon, Strathmore fire chief. “We are planning on doing that again, and with RCMP and FCSS and there might be a few others who come out and join us.”

Instead of going door to door to canvas the community, it is decidedly more flexible and reliable to leave donation bags with community members to fill with what they may, then leave the bags on their doorsteps the following week for collection. 

In 2023, the Wheatland County Food Bank indicated the competition resulted in their single largest donation ever received. This amounted to 4,667 pounds of food donated as the combined total between the Fire Department and Holy Cross Collegiate. 

“Last year, we beat that by a little bit, we got 4,735 pounds, so we are hoping this year to up it again and go from there,” said Sturgeon. “It would be quite an achievement to hit the 5,000 pounds mark. So, we are handing out 2,000 bags (and) hopefully we can get a lot of donations.”

Stapled to the donation bags was a list of items suggested for donation and what the most needed items by the food bank are, as well as instructions for when and where to leave the donation bags for pickup. 

Over the previous two years, the Fire Department raised more donations than the students both times. Though it didn’t take place, the running joke is if the students are defeated, they would have to wash the department’s trucks. 

“That first year, they came over to wash the trucks and we just provided the lunch, we did not make them do it, and then last year we won again but we still provided the lunch because they contributed almost half to the final total,” said Sturgeon.

Collection bags were distributed throughout the community, Feb. 28 and are scheduled to be collected again, March 7, starting at 9 a.m.