Pattison Agriculture decided to help after the Humboldt tragedy
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
A Western Canadian farm equipment dealer has donated to an air ambulance service.
Pattison Agriculture, which has locations in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, presented STARS Air Ambulance with $100,000 donation Monday.
The donation is in honour of the service’s first responders for their work during the April 6 bus tragedy that killed members of the Humboldt Broncos hockey team.
“For us, it’s humbling and Saskatchewan is home for us and a lot of us have spent a lot of hours on hockey buses and football buses and baseball buses and band trips and everything else,” Arthur Ward, president of Pattison Agriculture, told paNOW Monday.
“And we know that there’s remote areas that if people, when they get into trouble and they need some help, hopefully this money will help STARS continue to do their work.”
On the evening of the crash, three STARS helicopters transported patients and helped doctors arrive in Nipawin and Tisdale to provide support for medical staff in those communities.
STARS, a charitable and non-profit organization, relies on donations to help provide services and training, as well as to keep its helicopters in good working order.
The $100,000 from Pattison Ag will go towards fuel, which costs about $350 per flight, and aircraft maintenance.
“It’s going to make such a huge difference for us, to our program,” Cindy Seidl, provincial director of operations and a flight nurse with STARS, told paNOW yesterday. “Half of our operating budget annually comes from fundraising, and this will go such a long way in order to help us provide that critical care in rural Saskatchewan.”