More than $10,000 will go towards flood relief efforts in southern Alberta thanks to a pancake breakfast fundraiser in Olds on July 7.
The event was held in the parking lot at the Olds Royal Canadian Legion.
Brandon Ayles, the food services contractor at the legion, said he got the idea for the event after seeing the devastation in other parts of the province and knew that he wanted to help out in whatever way he could.
“I saw the news stories (two weeks ago) and I thought we were lucky here in Olds not to be affected by the floods and (I know) as a contractor here at the legion, they do a lot of good work in the community and I thought maybe we could get something started,” he said.
Ayles then contacted several different businesses in town and they all readily jumped on board to help. Members of the Mountain View Pistons car club also parked their vintage vehicles in the parking lot to help bring people to the event.
“We've got tons of volunteers from the legion, the ladies auxiliary of the legion, just friends and neighbours,” he said. “We're not looking for credit here. It was just a spontaneous thing.”
Ayles said the community supported the event with enthusiasm.
“The support by everybody's been phenomenal,” he said.
Rob Della Siega, owner of the Olds Sobeys supermarket, was one of the many businesspeople who came out to support the effort.
He said the company would be matching the amount raised by the community up to $100,000. He said when he was contacted about the event, he wholeheartedly threw his support behind it, serving up breakfast to the many people who attended.
Sobeys matched the more than $5,000 raised from the roughly 400 community members who took part in the breakfast.
“I think it was a phenomenal idea to support flood relief in southern Alberta,” he said.
