This past Saturday night the Airdrie Health Foundation, hosted their carnival-themed Light Up the Night Gala, which is one of the largest fundraisers for the foundation. 

Michelle Bates, Executive Director with the Airdrie Health Foundation mentioned It was really nice to see people's faces and be back in person after two years of having to pivot. 

“People seem to really enjoy themselves. We had a carnival theme and we had some entertainment around, jugglers interacting with the crowd. We had a gentleman, Mr. Skinny, who was on his unicycle going around doing some tricks. Everyone seemed to have a great time from what we could see. 

Although a final total of what was raised that night has not been finalized just yet, Bates did include that they received a $300,000 donation during the event. 

“We've been working with this donor for a little bit of time now. It was the right timing for the donor and they asked us to include it in our night at the gala to announce that there was an anonymous donation for $300,000.” 

While most of the money will go into a fund for now, some of it will be used right away to help with response times at our urgent care. 

According to Bates, it leaves her speechless seeing how much the Airdrie Health Foundation has grown. 

“We really started off as an advocating group to push for better services and to see it now transformed into a charity where we're fundraising, it's really surreal to me.” 

Up next for the foundation is to finish ironing out so more fundraising ideas and wrap up a whole bunch that are now finished like the gala and the smile cookie campaign. 

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