Spirited cleanup and fundraising efforts to undo what took an EF4 tornado mere minutes to destroy on Canada Day continue in the Didsbury-Carstairs area. 

That includes the family-friendly Mountain View Tornado Benefit Concert this Saturday, July 29  at the Carstairs Memorial Arena from 3 to 8 p.m.

Blake Reid, Dustin Farr, Liz Christiansen, Grady Brown, Prairie Mountain Fiddlers, the Travelling Mabels, and Nolan Ray are all set to perform a series of half-hour sets.

"It's gonna be a fun time," says singer/songwriter Farr, one of the organizers. "There's gonna be lots of different styles of music going on and hopefully we'll have something for everybody."

While catching the music, you can bid at silent and live auctions. Outside, kids' activities are being staged by the Carstairs and District Agricultural Society and there'll be a barbecue.

Entry is by donation.

Farr says the seed they planted to use music to bring people together for a good cause quickly blossomed into the solid five-hour event.  

"The outpouring of support has been phenomenal," says Farr. "I mean, we reached out and started asking people and before you knew it we had people coming to us and graciously donating their time as performers to come put on a show for everybody."

It's not just the artists who have come together to make it all possible, he points out. He says support from the surrounding communities from Olds to Airdrie has just been incredible.

"We've just had an amazing response from sponsors that want to donate in any way they can, whether that's donating to the auction piece or just putting cash up for us to be able to put this event on has been phenomenal all the way to our sound and lighting folks that are going to donate their time."

There's still time to make contributions to the event, whether it be items, cash e-transfers, or gift cards.

"If you wanted to drop something off the day of the event, that's absolutely OK," he says. "If they have something that they would like to donate or sponsor in any way, we would graciously try and make it work."

Donations can be made in the form of cash, gift cards, and e-transfers. E-transfers can be sent to mvtornadobenefit@gmail.com and will be deposited to ConnectFirst Credit Union. 

In addition to the fundraising effort, many continue to step forward to assist with the cleanup efforts that continue. 

"We weren't impacted directly, but we did go out and help," says Farr. "My daughters are part of the Eagle Eagle Hill Beef & Multi 4H Club and we organized some people and went down and helped clean up for a couple hours one day. It's amazing the amount of work that needs to happen out there. There are some incredible volunteers that have stepped up to help."

"There's been an amazing outpouring of support from all the communities and, of course, there's still a lot of work to be done. There is a Facebook page out there for tornado cleanup help. Maybe they don't have a dollar to give, but they have some time. That's also valuable."

You can stay updated on all the efforts being made here.

Carstairs is located 68 km northeast of Cochrane.