Our City in Colour books available for youth groups to sell (Photo courtesy of Bob Schneider)

By Hayley Ferguson

Our City in Colour

Local businesses get creative and colourful with fundraising

Aug 2, 2019 | 2:40 PM

Medicine Hat, AB – When it comes to fundraising for sports teams, youth groups, and school clubs local businesses play a huge role.

That’s why two local businesses are getting creative in order to help even more groups.

Crystal Metz Insurance and Mr.Lube have teamed up to create ‘Our City in Colour.’ A colouring book full of local landmarks and building.

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

WHAT'S ON

Here is what's on this weekend in Medicine Hat and area: Dec. 13-15

18h ago

IN THE COMMUNITY

Medicine Hat's Mustard Seed adding new shelter spaces at Alberta government's request

Dec 12, 2024

HOLIDAYS

Medicine Hat Kiwanis hosting Christmas dinner, applications due Friday

Dec 12, 2024

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.