Monday night was a special one for 100 Airdrie Men Who Give A Damn, as they surpassed a major milestone in donations to the community and as they honoured one of the founding members, Keith Wilkinson, who unfortunately passed away.

The latest meeting that happened last night, (Monday, Jan 24) was easily one of the most special ones as the group surpassed $250,000 donated to Airdrie and its local community groups over their five years of existence.

100 Airdrie Men Who Give A Damn is a group of men in Airdrie that come together and each donate $100 for the total to come to $10,000. Sometimes, when there is ever more than $10,000, the remaining donations get split up between the other two organizations that presented to the group.

This event saw presentations from Airdrie #LiveLocal, Airdrie Pride Society, and Airdrie Angel, with Airdrie Angel taking home the $10,000 for the organization. Airdrie #LiveLocal and Airdrie Pride Society each took home around $2000 with the extra funds that were donated.

A group of realtors that wanted to help others formed Airdrie Angel. They called it "real estate with a purpose" and were clear to note that they were neither a charity nor a not-for-profit, but rather a grassroots organization working to assist those who were struggling. To date, they've raised over $200,000 in cash and in-kind donations. 

A big component of the night was honouring Keith Wilkinson as he was such a beloved community member and was always willing to give a helping hand.

"The best way to keep his legacy is to keep this group alive and relevant and functional and that's what we intend to do," explained David Bowman, a member of 100 Airdrie Men and friend of Keith's.

Keith's wife was also in attendance for this meeting as the group was planning to honour Keith; but to her surprise, Airdrie Banff MP Blake Richards presented her with the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Award in honour of Keith.

Presentation to keith

Tyson Leslie, a founding member of 100 Airdrie Men and best friend of Keith mentioned he was always there for anybody.

"The number of people that have come up to us and said, Keith did this for me or he was involved in this cause or I met him at this event, or he helped me when I was down, the list goes on and on, it's almost unbelievable."

When asked what would Keith say if he was at the meeting last night, Leslie stated he would have been tremendously proud of what the group has accomplished.

"His wife was blown away by just the amount of kind words that people had to say about him," explained Leslie.

The group sits at $255,050 donated to local community groups.

Airdrie 100 Men Who Give A Damn's next meeting is April 18 at the Woods Restaurant at Woodside Golf Course.

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