Gull Lake Golf Course has been a bustling place this year.
The crew at the golf course, along with the Frequent Flyers Committee, put together by the help of Shirley Knauf and Yvette deBruyn, held their own tournament July 7, raising $11,200 towards the cardiac monitoring system at the Rimbey Hospital.
The name Frequent Flyers was inspired by the handful of people who frequent Gull Lake Golf Course.
The Legacy Committee held a golf tournament in conjunction with Wetaskiwin, who takes care of their funding, but Gull Lake had a handful of people who still wanted to give money toward the hospital, so between Knauf and deBruyn, they helped organize the Frequent Flyers tournament.
"The ladies said that there's people that still want to play and participate but don't want to travel, so that's how it came about," said Patrick Rurka, chairman of the Rimbey Hospital Legacy Committee.
There were over 50 golfers involved at the Frequent Flyers tournament, with one donor giving $5,000.
"As a committee chair, we absolutely love it when businesses opt to do some of their own fundraising for charity events on behalf of the hospital because the community wins every time in those situations," said Rurka.
This was the first time this tournament was held, and Rurka said they plan to repeat the event next year.
"It was such a success. We'll do two different tournaments. We'll let them do their own and we'll continue to partner with Wetaskiwin. It gives everybody an opportunity to play some golf and open their hearts."
In the 2023 to 2024 fiscal year, the committee, through the donations of the community, were able to contribute over $223,000 back to the hospital in the form of the patient cardiac monitoring system, three cabinet blanket warmers, two Broda chairs and four pro plus surface air mattresses.
"Everything just went well and the help from the community was just overwhelming."
