Fundraiser this weekend for Angus family

Over $11,000 in half-and-half tickets have been sold in support of the Angus family, who saw their beloved home destroyed in a fire in late March. 

The name of the winner will be pulled at a fundraiser breakfast to be held Saturday morning at the Moose Lodge, where all the proceeds from food sales will also go back to the family. 

Various donated items will also be up for auction too, said Lynne Norton, the community member behind the fundraiser for the family.

 “They’re doing okay. They’re just trying their best to get some realities in order, even down to trying to get her cell phone, different things,” Norton said about her friend Lenore Angus, the mother in the home. “They’re coming along.”

Their home by the band council was a total loss. The family also lost two vehicles and a trailer full of items in the fire. The cause of the fire is still not known.

The family has been staying in another home in the village area in the meantime, but it’s not a permanent solution for the family, Norton said. 

“It is an old house, but it’s a roof over their heads right now. She needs to get some work done in there to really make it livable for at least a year, until her house is built,” she said. 

Since the disaster the family has been flooded with donations. Clothes, a new bed, and a fridge and stove are among some of the items they’ve been filling their temporary home with. 

 “She’s kind of overwhelmed with all the support that she’s getting,” Norton said. “She keeps wanting to thank everybody, I said, ‘Not yet.’”

Each half-and-half ticket sold went for $5 each, or three for $10. Community members were more than eager to help out, sending donations via e-transfer. By last Friday, April 4, Norton had already sold 1,260 individual tickets.

“The only reason I quit, besides the dent in my fingers, is because I ran,” she wrote that day on Facebook. “I need to make more tomorrow. I still have lots to fill out.”

The fundraiser at the Moose will kick off at 9 a.m., Norton said, with a classic dinner-style breakfast of eggs, sausages, and bacon on the menu. It’ll come at a cost of $15 for adults, $10 for seniors, and $8 for children. Those under eight eat for free.

The breakfast is being served by The Rail, which donated their breakfast menu free of charge, said Rhonda Kirby, who also organized the fundraiser alongside Joanne Sky.

“It’s been a very generous donation from the rail,” Kirby said. “The Moose is donating the hall.”

Rez Gas and Rapids are also donating toward the breakfast as well, she said.

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