Grande Prairie Technical Search & Rescue is kicking off its annual 2020 raffle fundraiser, but this year it will be entirely online. Due to COVID-19, the organization, which is made up of unpaid, specially trained volunteers completely funded by donations, will be combining both its Father’s Day and golf fundraiser as one event.
Fundraising Director Bailey Randolph says the fundraisers as separate events usually bring in around $26,000 for the cause. She says that is approximately one-quarter of the funds raised every year. Randolph adds some of the fundraising efforts done prior to the outbreak of COVID-19 were put to use to bulk up prizes for their showcase event.
“We were able to take some of the donations that had already come in at our golf tournament… we were able to put those towards prizes towards our raffle,” she explains.
Randolph says while the pandemic may have slowed life to a crawl for many, those on the team are as busy as ever. She adds members are just regular people from the community going above and beyond.
“Through 2020, we’ve already done 300 hours of searches, and that’s with the COVID-19 pandemic, and this is our slow time,” she says.
“We have a lot of RCMP, paramedics, nurses, educators, heavy-duty mechanics who are putting all of their time helping our community, then they turn around and put their extra effort and time into Technical Search & Rescue to make sure everyone can come home safe.”
The ticket deadline is August 30th. More information on the raffle can be found on itswebsite.