ESTEVAN — Food, an auction, comedy and music all helped raise funds for the Creighton Lodge Trust Committee at their largest fundraiser to date.
A total of 420 people filled the Power Dodge Curling Centre in Estevan on Saturday night for the benefit. According to lodge manager Shelly Veroba, the lodge set another record for participation, all while raising a substantial amount of money for their big kitchen renos.
It's believed that between $65,000 and $70,000 was raised for the kitchen expansion, which is ready to begin.
"It was a fabulous night," Veroba said.
"I think the increased interest is just the fact that Creighton Lodge has been owned and operated by the five RMs since 2010. And it's such an important building to our community and for southeast Saskatchewan. We have a waiting list right now of 209 people. People are just recognizing that seniors need to have a safe, healthy, socially invigorating environment to live in. And that's what Creighton Lodge gives to this community."
The fundraisers started in 2011 with about 90 people attending a five-course supper and grew to over 400 enjoying a night filled with entertainment this year.
The night had cocktails, supper catered by Spilchuk Meats and Catering, a 50/50, raffle draws, a live auction conducted by Jason LeBlanc, comedy by Joel Jeffries of Saskatoon, and musical entertainment by Karissa Hoffart and Justin LaBrash to wrap up the night.
The gift basket winners were Lori Holden and Irene Bonokoski. Errin Goettling, who won over $1,400 in a 50/50 draw, donated it back to the lodge. One of the biggest bids for the live auction was a trip to Mexico, which was purchased by an anonymous bidder and then donated back to the lodge to be raffled off in the fall to help raise more funds.
The Knights of Columbus volunteered to help clear the tables, Lemon Wedge Marketing helped organize the night and many volunteers stepped in to cover other duties.
"We had so many volunteers come out to help us that it just made the event go smooth," Veroba said. "Creighton Lodge relies on volunteers for this event. And we appreciate each and every one that came out."
The lodge has been working on raising funds for its kitchen expansion for a few years. The project is expected to be completed before the end of this year, providing better service to residents and also opening up opportunities for the lodge to cater to more seniors in the community.
"This will be a brand-new kitchen built out to the east of our building behind our existing kitchen. And once that kitchen is built, then the project also involves renovating our existing kitchen into more dining room space," Veroba said. "We have 47 rooms but 51 residents. The more married couples we have living here, the more dining room space we need.
"And with that updated kitchen, in the next year or so we hope to start an outreach program where we can start supplying meals for seniors who are living in our community, who can live on their own, but just can't cook on their own.
"And then we can possibly either a) welcome them into the lodge every day to come and eat here; or b) bring the meals to them or have them picked up. We still have to work out the details of the outreach program for the meals, but we're going to make sure that we can supply meals to the seniors in our community as well as people that live here in our building."
The cost of the kitchen expansion project is about $1.2 million, Veroba said, and the lodge has already started the tendering process for the design.
