STARS is celebrating 40 years of service with a special fundraiser at the beginning of April to help ensure their teams can continue to save lives for many years to come.
On April 1st and 2nd, more than 50 radio stations from Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, including 2Day FM, will host the “Critical Care on the Air Radiothon” to raise money for the air ambulance service.
Geo Rawlins, a STARS pilot who has been based out of Grande Prairie for more than ten years, says without public support, STARS simply would not exist the way it does today.
“Obviously, without the dollars, without that public support, without that public funding, we simply could not do what we do,” he says. “We hear a lot of things that happen with AHS with budget cuts and such, and if we can truly service the people of the Peace Region, service Albertans, we need to have the flexibility to be able to help them.”
So where exactly do your donations go? According to STARS, costs can quickly add up, with one uniform alone costing around $1,000, and medical equipment hovering around the $1,700 mark. Rawlins adds that even outside of equipment costs, maintaining STARS’ high level of training is almost entirely dependent on community support.
“It all comes from the support of the community, jet fuel is expensive, these helicopters $13 million as it sits here, are expensive, our night vision goggles, our training to maintain that highest of high level, not a mediocre level, but the highest level of training that both the medical and aviation side continue on an ongoing basis,” he says. “Every dollar that we receive through calendar sales, lottery sales, through just donations, helps us achieve that.”
Donations are now being accepted online; ahead of the radiothon on April 1st and 2nd.
