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By Chris Brown & Scott Roblin

Big weekend ahead

City proclaims June 5-7 Help for HALO Weekend

Jun 4, 2020 | 12:12 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – This weekend will be one like no other in Medicine Hat after Mayor Ted Clugston signed a proclamation Thursday to make June 5-7 Help for HALO Weekend in the city.

It’s the latest initiative in the community after HALO Air Ambulance announced in May that it was weeks away from ceasing operations due to a lack of funding.

“You can judge by how important something is to the community when the community steps up like that and wants to save something that’s so important to them,” said Clugston. “So, it’s a small little part for myself and City Council to proclaim.”

This comes one week after HALO received close to $350,000 from southern Alberta residents in a fundraising push which will allow them to keep their twin-engine helicopter in the air until at least the fall.

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Even though most of their missions are flown outside of Medicine Hat, HALO CEO Paul Carolan said those in the city know how to support their own.

“This quite frankly is one of the most amazing pieces that we’ve seen within the city probably since our beginning,” said Carolan.

Kole Dalgleish is one of the coordinators of Help for HALO Weekend and said the service is an essential one for the community.

“I think that the resources should be coming from the government but unfortunately they’re not so it is up to us as small businesses and local people in the community to help try and fund this very important cause,” said Dalgleish.

Customers will be able to take part in Brews for HALO, Dine for HALO, Hair for HALO, and Shop for HALO with over 50 local retailers stepping up to donate profits.

The two main events for the weekend are a Park N Watch movie on Saturday at the Stampede grounds and a Cut-a-Thon on Sunday at the HALO Hangar.

IG Securities Inc and IG Wealth Management donated the supplies to make the show possible, wanting to take the burden off of HALO for the night.

“We want to just make sure that from an administrative standpoint that we’re able to cover those costs, to make sure that every donation goes to HALO,” said David Stevens with IG Wealth Management.

Organizers have an initial goal of raising $25,000 over the course of the weekend, however will revisit that number as the fundraiser goes along.