TRIBUNE - A unique fundraiser for Telemiracle, ran by the Radius Credit Union's Tribune branch this year, came to an end with a customer appreciation day at the bank and employees getting pied on April 21.
To make their traditional fundraising efforts more fun, the branch offered customers the chance to win an opportunity to pie the manager and employees for a donation towards Telemiracle. This twist allowed them to raise $3,800, claiming first place across all Radius Credit Union branches and also setting their own fundraising record.
Dianne Chapman, business development manager with Radius Credit Union’s Tribune branch, said they were excited to see such support from the community.
"This was the highest amount that we've ever raised. Last year was $2,000. So, when we hit the $3,000 mark, it was like, wow. And then we almost got to four. It was really good. We had just fantastic community support," Chapman said.
For a $20 donation, people could win a chance to pie Chapman in the face, and for a $100 donation, a winner got to pie all of the branch staff.
While this fundraiser attracted more support from the community, Chapman noted that when it came to the prizes, many people said that even if they win they wouldn't claim them.
"Most people when we tried to sell it to them, they said 'there's no way I'm going to be able to pie you guys.' That's when we started thinking we'll serve pies and you guys can have a pie with us. So that's why we actually served tarts yesterday because there were lots of people that wanted to donate, but they absolutely would not pie us. And even the ones that got drawn for the winners of the $20 and the $100 donations didn't want to pie us, but we asked them that they do it just so that we can have some fun," Chapman said.
About 35 people came to the branch during the day, and about 15 stayed there for the final event.
"It was a lot of fun," Chapman said, adding that with this year's success they probably will try something similar next year.
Radius Credit Union has branches in Ogema, Avonlea, Ceylon, Pangman, Redville, Torquay and Tribune. All together they raised $6,400 for Telemiracle this year, which means that the Tribune branch alone was responsible for raising almost 60 per cent of the regional total.
"It's really important to us here [to fundraise for Telemiracle every year] because the funds stay local in Saskatchewan. And we've all been touched by Telemiracle in some aspect. So, it's an important thing to support for us … just to help people in Saskatchewan," Chapman said.
"And I really would like to thank our staff for promoting it and thank the community for all of their donations. Without our community, we couldn't do this. And it was great fun."
