It took a while to tally up all the donations, but the 100 Mile District Hospice Palliative Care Society raised $21,000 in May thanks to a variety of initiatives.
Hospice executive director Tracy Haddow said they were blown away by the community’s generosity, noting there was a lot going on that month. She credits the result to the generosity of the community and new fundraising events the hospice society tried, including their first dinner and auction.
“That was the highlight of our fundraising at the end. We hadn’t done something like that before so there was a lot of learning,” Haddow said. “We were really thrilled with the outcome. We sold out of dinner tickets, so that was really encouraging. In the end, we brought in $12,000 from the dinner auction.”
BJ’s Dounuts did the catering for the event, John and Demian Pettman provided live music and Donna Barnett served as auctioneer during the live auction. It was a great night for everyone who attended, Haddow added.
“We had some really amazing auction items and people just really enjoyed it and had fun. It was a great night.”
She remarked that fundraising initiatives such as the donation boxes scattered around town, the Showcase Gallery’s sales, Zumba with Gale Ogden, sunflower sales at the Cariboo Plant Ranch, the butterfly cookies at Lac La Hache Bakery and other fundraisers all raised an additional $9,000. She thanked everyone who donated and helped raise funds for hospice.
Hospice is currently running its summer 50/50 draw, now with new ticket prices. Each ticket costs $20, with 2,500 tickets available for a potential payout of $25,000 each for the society and the lucky winner, should all the tickets be sold. Tickets are available at BJ’s Donuts, Pharmasave, Donex Pharmacy & Department Store, the Sugar Shack in 70 Mile, the 108 Mile Supermarket, hospice’s office and online at 100miledistricthospice.org/5050-draw-summer-2023/. Tickets are available until Aug. 31 with the draw date set for Sept. 5.
“Our goal is to raise about $70,000 for the year to cover all of our expenses, so May certainly gave us a good forward motion for fundraising,” Haddow said.
patrick.davies@100milefreepress.net
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