The southeastern Alberta community has come out in full force to keep HALO in the air, already raising $143,000 ahead of a french-fry giveaway fundraiser on Friday.--SUBMITTED PHOTO MARK MENNIE
gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade
Strong community support for HALO helicopter air ambulance is evident in recent fundraising initiatives.
“We don’t have any totals yet but we’re hoping to make an announcement towards the middle of the week with how things stand and what the potential is,” said Paul Carolan CEO HALO. “We are getting quite a bit of support.”
An online group began selling items to raise funds and in 72 hours had accumulated 532 donations valued at more than $143,000.
The News was not able to reach Nicole Viste, The Bunkhouse, who appears to have started the process.
Carolan says he is aware of how much support there is in the region for HALO so he is not surprised but “eternally grateful.”
“Hopefully based on what we see this coming week we’ll be able to make a decision about extending the program. It’s certainly HALO’s goal to keep the twin-engine helicopter on line,” said Carolan, noting that while he spoke with the News, the twin-engine was out on a mission.
The community has once again shown that they believe this program is essential, said Carolan.
“The people of southern Alberta are incredible and rallied behind HALO in our time of need.”
HALO recently revealed that after 13 years of operating, with no operational funding from the provincial government, there was a crisis. The usual fundraising opportunities had been severely affected due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Carolan announced HALO would return to a single-engine helicopter on June 1 and possibly cease to operate entirely on July 1.
Carolan said Monday he was not prepared to change that announcement yet but was “very optimistic” about developments.
Carolan says they expect to raise about $100,000 on Friday thanks to an initiative with McCain’s french fry maker and Western Tractor.
“With Alberta potato farmers impacted by the shutdown of the food service sector as a result of the COVID- 19 pandemic and the recent news about HALO Air Ambulance, we wanted to do our part in ensuring those in our communities have the support and access to essential services they need,” said Steven Dyck, president of Western Tractor.
Late last week, Drew Barnes, MLA for Cypress-Medicine Hat, said he’d been in talks with Health Minister Tyler Shandro, his press secretary and officials with EMS. He is expecting word today about his request that interim funding be provided to HALO until the end of September when an official review is due complete.
