Local businesses get creative and colourful with fundraising

The pages, full of drawings of places like the Saamis Teeppe and Medalta, were drawn by 22 year old local artist Cale Cooper.

Crystal Metz says that keeping the book local was very important to her.

“People in Medicine Hat love Medicine Hat. There are so many landmarks here that people just recognize and they get excited about. It’s also a piece of nostalgia.” She said.

The businesses print the books and donate them for free to youth groups.

The groups can then sell the books for $4 and are able to keep all of the profits.

“I thought with all the organizations that I help with maybe $200 to $300 at a time, maybe I could only help five a year. But with this program in place, they keep so much more for the benefit of their organization.” Metz explained. “And I was now able to help, with the help of Mr.Lube and splitting the cost, maybe 20 every year.”

Chris Hellman, the owner of the Medicine Hat Mr.Lube, says he was thrilled when Metz approached him about the idea.

To him, it was a great way to stretch the dollars they were donating to the community.

“Lots of these youth organizations that are out fundraising and selling items to raise funds for their organizations, a lot of that money, a lot of that revenue is tied up in product and administrative costs.” He continued. “And I think with this program, we cover the whole cost of the books. There’s no admin fees so the organizations keep 100 per cent of whatever they can sell.”

Organizations can order books online.

Metz and Hellman say there are no upfront costs. They only ask for a short final report so that they can keep track of how much is being raised and to make sure none go to waste.

by Hayley Ferguson

Local businesses get creative and colourful with fundraising

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