INNISFAIL – Rural Innisfail and area 4-H kids and their leaders are making a huge difference to make the town down the highway a better place.
Since 2021, the 74-year-old Kneehill Valley 4-H Beef Club, headquartered 16 kilometres east of Innisfail, has supported several vital Innisfail institutions with thousands of dollars raised through ticket sales of a donated charity calf.
Club leader Brad Hollman said this year’s recipient from monies raised at the club’s annual show and sale on May 29 was the Diamond #7 project, which is receiving $15,000.
In 2022 the club raised $8,812.50 for the upgraded Innisfail Heliport and another $8,812.50 for a new cardiac monitor at the Innisfail Health Centre.
As well, in 2021 the club raised $19,420, which was split equally between STARS air ambulance and the Innisfail Ski Club during the latter’s new chalet construction project.
The 2022 donation to the heliport and hospital was officially and publicly announced at the grand opening of the heliport on June 8.
“We always need extra equipment in our emergency department. It’s always a need, and this was the opportunity, and that's what that money was delegated for because that's something that was required,” said Jeff Hammel, unit manager for acute care and emergency.
He said the cardiac monitor, which arrived at the hospital on June 5, can check patients’ heart rhythm, blood pressure, oxygen level and monitor carbon dioxide levels.
“Anybody that's having chest pain or some other health-related issue, we can monitor their vital signs more closely with the use of the cardiac monitor,” said Hammel.
The club’s fundraising efforts for the heliport were recognized on June 8 on one of the two new plaques at the site to honour community members and groups that provided support for the upgrade project.
“It's an overwhelming joy. It’s more impactful for the kids. Even though each individual name isn't there they know they kept pulling together as a group,” said Hollman, adding a new fundraising project for the club will be chosen as early as this fall following some ”brainstorming” by club members.
However, with the completed projects since 2021 Hollman said the club’s 29 regular and 16 cleaver members are able to show the fruits of their labours to friends and family later on in life as proof they were part of a vital community upgrading project, and that they achieved something special that leaves a lasting and important legacy.
“As people of the human species we are never going to live forever but if we can leave our fingerprints behind in positive ways as we go that's how we leave our legacy,” said Hollman.
