With the wrap up of our 2005 “Helping Hands” campaign, it has become evident that this project is starting to assume a life of its own.  From humble beginning just four short years ago as a winter jacket drive to this years incredible collection of 75,000 pounds of clothing, toys and various other necessities, Helping Hands has become one of the city’s major Christmas charity campaigns.  These goods were complimented with cash donations at the Mark’s Work Warehouse stores, an all request day (songs played for a donation) through JACK FM and the Regal Auction.

We began the 2005 campaign with meetings as early as August. We enlisted the use of a promotional company to assist in our exposure through print and television. Gary Nakamura was successful in negotiating an incredible radio package through Rogers Radio Group that included our friends at the Fan 960 and JACK FM.  This media package was valued at $77,000.00 but continued exposure during the campaign by all of the on-air personalities greatly increased this total. JACK FM has never taken a song request from listeners. On December 19th, listeners were encouraged to request a song for a donation to the campaign. A total of $1,200.00 was raised for Helping Hands.

Calgary North strengthened its relationship with Mark’s Work Warehouse. With the addition of three new outlets in Calgary and a renewed enthusiasm for the campaign, this partnership helped us shatter last year’s record with an increase of just under 75%. When you consider that there were 27 charitable programs running in Calgary over this same period you realize just how generous our city is.

Regal Auctions came through again this year with a “Helping Hands” evening in conjunction with their auction on December 21st. In addition to a number of live and silent auction items, there were several donated cars sold and Regal donated a large portion of their fees from the sale. Thank you to kitchen staff who donated their tips to the cause as well.

New this year was our “Helping Hands Fill the Truck Challenge”. On Saturday, December 17th, a 5 ton truck was donated and driven by Terry Moore, President of King’s Transport and copiloted by his lovely wife. This truck was driven to 5 major Mark’s Work Wearhouse stores to collect donations. The challenge was to fill the truck with promotion of this event broadcast live on Jack FM. TV coverage by Global and City TV news capped off the day’s event. The event proved very successful as Calgarians drove to the stores with items for donation and filled the truck.

Calgary North member Carlyle Chung held a clothing drive at his church and collected enough to fill a 4 ton truck. Club members and volunteers helped sort these goods and get them ready for the Calgary Drop-In and Rehab Centre and The Salvation Army Family Services. The hours invested in this year’s campaign by our club members and volunteers far exceeded our expectations. The long hours spent in the planning, promoting and execution of “Helping Hands 2005” ended with our wrap up party on January 30th. Here we get to say “Thank you” to our friends at Rogers Radio Group; Shannon, Mike, Rick, Matt, Eric, Beasly and Tim; Lindsay and all the store managers at Mark’s Work Wearhouse; our friends at Regal Auctions and Kings Transport; Janice at “Mission Possible”; Major Gary Brown of the Salvation Army and Dermot Baldwin of the Calgary Drop In Centre. A final “Thank You” goes out to the committee members and the rest of Calgary North. The efforts and dedication of all involved helped enriched the lives of many Calgarians.  I am very proud to be a Progressian and a member of Calgary North.

Yours for Progress,
Larry Burney