INNISFAIL – The congregation at St. Mark’s Anglican Church wanted to do a little bit more this holiday season for those in need, and sometimes it’s best to think outside the box.
November is the month of the year when St. Mark’s hosts its Annual Fellowship Supper, an event for congregation members, their families and friends to celebrate faith with a wonderful meal.
It’s also an event where five worthy Innisfail and area non-profits become recipients of annual church donations.
However, this year two others from much further away were added.
They both served the Municipality of Jasper - 429 kilometres northwest of Innisfail and where a gigantic destructive wildfire tore through the historic Rocky Mountain resort town from July 22 to Sept. 7.
Jasper’s Coat Rescue Program urgently needed appropriate clothes sizes for clients, and it received a $1,000 donation from the Innisfail church.
“We really appreciate this. We are finding it challenging to provide infant/children’s sizes and adult XXL and XXXL sizes with our donations,” said Kim Winand, a program support worker in the Municipality of Jasper’s community development department, in a Nov. 18 email letter. “So, this will be beyond helpful. Bless you all for your amazing generosity.”
The second donation to support Jasper’s unprecedented plight was inspired and directed at victims too often forgotten during times of catastrophic upheaval.
Edmund Barker, the bishop’s warden at St. Mark’s, said there was some initial thought to support Jasper churches but it was soon learned the mountain resort town’s Anglican and United churches were both destroyed by the wildfire.
He said Jasper community leaders were contacted for suggestions, and one especially became much clearer.
“One of the things that I think people forget, as well as people being displaced, was that animals were left behind. It was quite hard for them to be looked after,” said Barker.
He said a decision was made by the church to send a $500 donation to the Hinton and District SPCA, an agency whose headquarters is 77 kilometres northeast of Jasper.
On Nov. 20, St. Mark’s received an email letter of gratitude from Cathy Thomas, the non-profit’s fundraising and special projects coordinator.
“This past summer we received two dogs, 26 cats, three parrots, two budgies, two love birds, two corner snakes, two snails and a variety of fish - one of which arrived in a pickle jar - from Jasper,” said Thomas.
“In most cases the owners were either at work or out of town when the evacuation order was given and could not get to their animals. Jasper bylaw was allowed to go into homes once it was deemed safe and they brought the animals to us,” added Thomas. “We loaned them our Ford Transit van and we loaded it with everything they could possibly need.
“Each night upon their return we would be there to receive whatever they brought us and to make the pets as comfortable as we could.”
And today many of the recovered pets have been reunited with their humans.
Some have stayed with the Hinton and District SPCA.
Others are back to do what they do best.
“Miette Jack, a community cat who had spent many years at the Pocahontas cabins keeping them safe from mice and even the occasional bear, is now living his best life as a barn cat still chasing mice but not having to worry about the bears,” said Thomas, adding her agency is still caring for two budgies and a fish.
“The budgies have been made available for adoption and we now have a shop fish who enjoys hanging out in our lobby.”
In the meantime, St. Mark’s also handed out donations to non-profits closer to home.
Representatives of the Innisfail Christmas Bureau and the Innisfail and District Food Bank each received cheque donations in the amount of $1,000.
Three other Innisfail area non-profits received $500 donations.
The recipients included the Red Deer Ronald McDonald House, The Mustard Seed in Red Deer and the Central Alberta Humane Society.
