The Interact Club at St. Albert Catholic High School really wanted to help out the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation by doing a bottle drive. I mean they really wanted it.
The 15 member strong high school Rotary Club had perhaps the most impressive bottle drive of recent note, as they trucked in a staggering load worth approximately $1,450 to the depot. The holiday season drive was successfully supplemented by major boosts of bottles offered up by the Grenier Place Boston Pizza location and Sorrentino’s Restaurant. Staples also offered free photocopying of posters for the drive and the St. Albert Bottle Refund Centre teamed up to sort and count the massive collection that included four foldout dumpster bags full of beer cans. A stuffed five-ton cube truck was needed to transport it all.
The cheque was presented to the Stollery last week. The money will go toward pediatric health needs at the celebrated facility.
The Salvation Army’s Christmas kettle campaign had a banner year, with the final tally coming in at $375,372.15. The overwhelmingly positive response from the public helped organizers to blow right past the goal of $300,000.
Volunteers rang bells at the kettle locations at various consumer destinations across this city and Spruce Grove. The campaign ran from mid-November up until Dec. 24. A one-day blitz at all three St. Albert Scotiabank branches in early December helped to accumulate $9,300 in public donations. The banks then added in matching funds to bring that up to $18,600.
The total surpasses last year’s mind-blowing collection of approximately $326,000.
The annual campaign fundraised for the church's programs within the community.
People can contact the church to learn more about the campaign or its programs by calling 780-458-1937 or visiting www.stalbertsalvationarmy.ca. You can also visit salvationarmy.ca/donate to help out. The St. Albert church is located at 165 Liberton Drive.
The Friends of the St. Albert Public Library are pretty good at fashion sales. The literary supporters offered Out of Print book-themed T-shirts during a recent fundraising campaign that ran from October to December. Nearly $2,750 in merchandise was sold, and 50 per cent of the profits (totalling $1373.07) went to the library.
At the same time, the clothing company gave a book to a community in need through its charity partner, Books for Africa, for every purchase.
This helps to alleviate the shortfall from the discontinuation of the Reel Monday film series. The popular former program screened acclaimed film festival titles at the Grandin Theatres up until the theatre was torn down last year for the Grandin mall redevelopment.
To learn more about the Friends including how to offer further financial support, you can visit www.sapl.ab.ca/about-us/giving/32-sapl/38-friends-introduction.html.
