With only three weeks to go until the spring hoedown in support of Big Hill Haven, Cochrane's future women's shelter, one might expect event organizers would be frantically scrambling to sell tickets and take care of last-minute details.
With only three weeks to go until the spring hoedown in support of Big Hill Haven, Cochrane's future women's shelter, one might expect event organizers would be frantically scrambling to sell tickets and take care of last-minute details.
Instead, the core group is laughing over brimming mugs of hot coffee and muffins. While the event is nearly a month out, it's already sold out - all 130 tickets, with all proceeds from ticket sales, live and silent auction items going directly to the cause.
Hosted by the Women of the Wild West, the April 28 benefit dinner and dance at the Cochrane Legion in hoedown fashion is dressed for success.
Women of the Wild West is a popular group of Cochranites who banded together, clad in costumes depicting famed femme outlaws and characters from the Wild West era to support charitable endeavours.
"This last year the heavy concentration was on awareness - for me, this is the fruition of this," said Margaret Van Tighem, chair of the Big Hill Haven board and co-founder of the shelter initiative, who has spent a lifetime working in crisis and addictions.
Van Tighem is all smiles, with the recent presentation of the draft feasibility study - the first major step toward building the local shelter - now on the table.
She confirmed the study has revealed there is an identifiable need for a women's shelter in Cochrane and that while nothing is definitive yet, the group will be looking to a rural model rather than a larger-city model like some of the Calgary centres.
The board will soon meet again with feasibility consultant Brigitte Baradoy to begin shaping plans for a crisis shelter with 10 to 20 beds, designed for temporary stays, and plans for transitional housing throughout the community to provide sustainable options for women and their children to rebuild their lives.
To date, around $90,000 has been fundraised for the shelter, with around $50,000 left in the bank after paying for the feasibility study, some start-up costs and readying former co-founder Patti Fischer to become the society's first half-time employee.
Fischer will start mid-month as an outreach worker, setting up her office in the Cochrane Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) building, where Van Tighem touts the FCSS staff as being highly supportive of the shelter.
"We are excited to be able to provide an outreach person to the community who will be operating out of the FCSS building," said Van Tighem. "We extend heartfelt thanks to all the community members who have supported us in this endeavour."
As the board awaits its Canadian Revenue Agency number for official charitable status, they are excited to get underway with plans and potential partnerships for site acquisition and building. Once plans are complete, the group will apply for "every grant out there" to help with the shelter build - with hopes of being shovel-ready in two to three years.
"I think people have their hearts out ... it's been out there long enough and people are really into supporting this cause," said event organizer Ana Botelho Clark.
Clark wears her background in corporate event planning on her sleeve, succinctly producing every detail about the evening from her organizational lockbox - better known as her laptop.
While Clark has not officially been recruited as a new woman of the Wild West, she is carefully considering putting her love for all things equine into action and looks to the group founder and her dear friend for direction.
The spicy and outgoing Marva DeBow, also known as Pistol Packin' Madame, an original member of the group in 2007.
At that time, the charity of choice was the Children's Wish Foundation, where the wild women would gear up and lend their support to various causes in support of sick kids, highlighted by Martha Birkett's 2008 cross-country horseback journey raising funds for the foundation.
From then on, Cochranites would celebrate the leather-clad, gun slingin' dames, some atop horses, at events such as the Labour Day Parade.
Resurrecting the group in support of the women's shelter came naturally to DeBow, who has lived in Cochrane since 1999 and prior to that lived in Golden, B.C.
"I have always been involved with women's shelters," said DeBow, explaining that because Golden was too small to have a physical shelter location she used to offer her own house as a safe haven in support of the network.
She by chance purchased the last ticket for last fall's premiere shelter fundraising dinner at the Links of GlenEagles and was quickly sold on the cause.
"I will do whatever I can for them," she said, with both Clark and Van Tighem heralding her for being their biggest ticket seller.
"I love having heroes - and she's one of them," laughed Van Tighem, gesturing toward DeBow.
The three women agreed having the right group of volunteers, combined with overwhelming community support, has lent itself to the sell-out success.
The team of women has compiled an impressive list of live and silent auction items.
Highlights include two WestJet tickets to fly anywhere; two tickets to a guided pack trip in the Tonquin Valley in Jasper National Park; a bronze sculpture donated in memory of famed artist Gina McDougall Cohoe; a Delta Kananaskis Hotel & Spa package including rafting and horseback riding; and various artwork, goods and services.
Gerrard Connelly, one of the auction donors who jumped at the opportunity to lend his chauffer services to the cause, has a personal connection to the shelter's concept.
"I stayed in the Hamis Allan Centre in Glasgow, Scotland when I was 11 years old," he explained. "My mom had to leave a very violent relationship after 15 years or so and we wound up in the shelter for about a week before we got into housing."
The owner/operator of HighlandVIP Group has added two private SUV airport shuttle services and a $600 limousine package to the benefit that takes him back to his roots in Glasgow, Scotland.
Connelly said that for him, adding to the auction item list to benefit Big Hill Haven is a "very small, small, small thing for me to do."
His hope is to see improvements in prevention and education to reduce the problem of family violence.
The event will be headlined by "fun and fearless guitar duo" Two Bad Apples, emceed by local cowboy poet BJ Smith and auctioneered by Don Savage.
The Bearcat Murray Tribute event taking place the night before, with all proceeds going toward the shelter cause, is also sold out.
Learn more at bighillhaven.com.
