From the bowl to medical equipment: Chili Cookout bolsters fundraising efforts

By Bruce Penton on July 17, 2024.

It didn’t take long for chili lovers in Medicine Hat to wolf down more than a 1,000 bowls of tasty chili Saturday at the annual Chili Cookout, a collaborative effort by local businesses and the Medicine Hat Potters’ Association to bring the Gas City’s downtown area fully alive. The Potters’ Association created 532 attractive bowls, and chili eaters bought them all, at $10 apiece, within 60 minutes of the start of the cookout.

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the bowls, $2,670, will be donated to A.J.’s Loan Cupboard, which is the source in Medicine Hat for medical equipment. “If you need it, and we’ve got it, you can use it, free of charge” is A.J.’s mantra, and what a great service it provides. Someone near and dear to me recently needed a few pieces of equipment after knee replacement surgery, and a stop at the Loan Cupboard gave us everything we needed to get through the rehab. At no charge! Of course, friendly donations are always welcomed, but the staff at A.J.’s are more concerned with the comfort of the client than the ringing of a cash register.

In the ‘About Us’ section of A.J.’s Loan Cupboard can be found the following: “A.J.’s Loan Cupboard, a non-profit, charitable society, began operating in 2002. To date it has provided a much needed service by making available medical equipment, not only for palliative needs but also for long- and short-term disabilities and illnesses. As changes and cutbacks occur in health care, the family once again takes more responsibility for their loved ones. A.J.’s has been the answer for many of these people. As quickly as equipment goes out, other pieces are returned or donated and so the circle of help continues.”

• Thankfully, my typing fingers are unaffected, but I’ve been suffering lately from a pain in my neck. It’s the result of a football injury: The TV set was situated in an awkward position in relation to my chair and while I was watching a football game the other night, my neck was tilted to the right for a good part of two hours. That right-tilt did some damage to a muscle, I suppose, because it’s been sore ever since.

So what medical practitioner would be best for treatment? A massage therapist? A chiropractor? An acupuncturist?

It might be a literal pain in the neck but it’s a figurative pain in a location that’s part of my lower anatomy.

• The Medicine Hat Public Library provides a regular newsletter, featuring upcoming events, etc. It’s far too long to include here, but it’s safe to say there’s something of interest for just about every age group, and it might be worth your while to drop in to the library and check things out. Oh, and with temperatures zooming up into the mid- to high-30s again next week, it’s appropriate to note that the library has air conditioning.

• Is there a worse logo in Alberta than the abomination used by the Calgary Stampede? A capital ‘C’ over top of a capital S sitting sideways. It looks like a mistake, but the Stampede board probably paid thousands of dollars for some marketing firm to design it. Still, the Calgary Stampede – horrible logo or not – is one of Canada’s greatest events.

• The Donald Trump assassination attempt was the dominant weekend news story, of course, but the New York Post, the Fox News of newspapers, may have gone overboard in its coverage. Sunday morning’s NYP website had no fewer than 20 Trump-related stories. The Post’s editorial lamented the ‘hate’ spewed on social media by the ‘left’ and suggested President Biden’s comment that “we cannot condone this” was a tad underwhelming. Wrote the Post’s editorialist: “‘Cannot condone.'” How about what are you going to do to stop it?”

Stop it? How about some control on guns? Such as past efforts by the ‘left’ encouraging some sort of gun control while Trump’s party, the Republicans, in concert with the National Rifle Association, do everything they can to make sure there is no reduction in Second Amendment rights, which give Americans the right to bear arms.

• Short snappers: Axios reports that Thomas Crooks, the shooter Saturday night at the Trump rally, tried out for his school’s rifle team in suburban Pittsburgh, but was turned away because he was “such a comically bad shot.” … Local sellers of bottled water will be bombarded in the next few days and weeks, with the Redcliff boil-water advisory and the 36C-plus temperatures for this region next week.

Bruce Penton is a retired News editor who may be reached at brucepenton2003@yahoo.ca

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