The Rimbey Hospital Legacy Foundation received a $20,000 donation from the Breton Royal Purple Elks Lodge, the Breton Elks Lodge and the Alberta Elks Foundation.

“It was absolutely fantastic. The support that they’ve put forward as a group was almost overwhelming, it was a great success. It’s amazing what small communities can do when they put their heads together,” said Patrick Rurka, chairman of the Rimbey Hospital Legacy Committee.

The money will be put toward replacing three old blanket warmers or fluid warmers.

“It’s essentially like a big storage unit that warms the blanket so that when you’re cold, when you’re sick, when you’re suffering, if you came into emergency with hypothermia, you get something nice, warm and appreciative to allow you to start your healing journey.”

Don Gillis, who is the president of the Elks of Canada, lives in Rimbey and belongs to the Breton Elks Lodge in Breton with his wife. He said the Elks are community-based and are always looking for the ability to donate or support one group or another.

“It doesn’t necessarily have to stay in the community. If it helps everybody, and there’s lots of people in Breton that use the services of the hospital in Rimbey, everybody wins,” said Gillis.

The Breton Royal Purple Elks Lodge together with the Breton Elks Lodge donated $15,000, while the Alberta Elks Foundation put toward $5,000.

“We’re really excited to get that all together,” said Gillis, adding that they did the cheque presentation a couple weeks ago, getting together to chat and have some snacks and burgers.

“When we donate we want to get to meet the people that are recipients of our donation,” he said.

The Elks are Canada-wide, and many of the lodges support seniors groups, children’s sports, along with doing stuff in and out of the community all the time.