Medicine Hat firefighters attend a medical emergency in Crestwood in this January 2020 file photo. --NEWS FILE PHOTO
kking@medicinehatnews.com
The Lions Club of Medicine Hat is partnering with local businesses to recognize and thank health-care workers and first responders with a gift card giveaway, scheduled to take place Nov. 26.
Open to hospital, fire service and police service staff, the giveaway includes more than 150 gift cards for a variety of Medicine Hat and area businesses, including hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues.
All gift cards were donated by the business and will be given away at random via a draw, which all local health-care workers and first responders may enter their name into.
“Frontline workers of all vocations have been through hell in the last two-and-one-half years; many are burnt out and some have even left their chosen professions,” Lions Club president Lou Harmer said while describing his club’s intention behind creating the giveaway. “(It’s) a small way for our community to show these frontline workers that we all care what they do.”
Fellow Lions Club member and past-president James Higgins is grateful to Medicine Hat’s business community for its willingness to support the effort through donation of gift cards.
“The community support that we’ve gotten for this has just been unbelievable,” Higgins said. “You walk in (to a business) and you tell them what you’re doing and they go ‘Yeah, I’m on board with that. No problem at all.’ It just shows what a fantastic, caring community we live in.”
Such support is greatly appreciated by health-care workers and first responders, says Medicine Hat Police Service inspector Joe West.
“This is a gesture that is very much appreciated by our first responders,” West said. “During the pandemic, the nature of the work changed and the challenges of the work became more intense for first responders. And so, this gesture is just great.”
With several weeks to go until the draw, the Lions Club is continuing to seek supporters wanting to donate a gift card or certificate. Anyone interested in doing so is asked to call 403-527-0140.
