OLDS — Residents of the Olds Seasons Encore retirement facility raised a total of $1,061 for the Mountain View Food Bank this year.
Resident Helen Marshall, who helped organize the donation, along with her husband Art and some other friends at the residence, says it’s too early to know if they’ll make this an annual practice, but she’s pretty proud that they were able to accomplish the feat this year.
Marshall said she and Art regularly take bottles to the bottle depot. The money obtained is used to buy things that Seasons Encore doesn’t normally provide. For example, an exercise bike and a shuffleboard table were bought.
After those purchases, the residents still had some money left over. So they decided to donate it to the Mountain View Food Bank.
“We voted at our council meeting. I said, ‘let’s give something to the food bank’ and they all were for it,” Marshall said.
A fundraising drive was held in the facility to see if they could boost that figure.
And low and behold, they did.
Another $561 was raised via bingo money and some individual donations. Combined with the bottle return money, they raised a total of $1,061.
That cheque, along with foodstuffs collected were donated to the Mountain View Food Bank on Dec. 17. Food bank volunteer Warren Smith came by to collect it all.
“I think it’s wonderful,” Marshall said. "This is the first year we’ve done any extra donation. But we wanted to let the community to know we do help out too.”
Smith was impressed – and grateful, on behalf of the food bank.
"Wow, that’s too good,” he said.
“Art and I take the bottles every month to the bottle depot,” Marshall said.
"You empty them as well,” Smith asked, sparking loud laughter.
