Editor’s note: Due to an editing error, an unfinished, uncorrected draft of this original story was published in last week’s edition of the Cochrane Eagle.
If Tim Harvie wasn’t a farmer, working the lands around Cochrane in his combine, you just might find him high above the skies, manoeuvring in a rescue helicopter over dense and remote areas of Alberta.
It’s that dream – along with a desire to help – which found him doing just that last month during a fundraiser for the province’s pre-eminent emergency air ambulance service.
Harvie was one of four company executives to take part in Rescue in the Rockies – an annual charity adventure that both challenges CEOs to get out of their comfort zone and brings in hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for the Shock Trauma Air Rescue Society (STARS).
The head of Southbow Farming Ltd. was approached earlier this year to participate in the fundraiser, which required him to try to raise $100,000 and then head out for a day of drills in Kananaskis country.
He said the service is critical to saving and improving lives.
“I’ve been a longtime supporter of STARS,” said Harvie. “I’ve had three close friends that have ridden in the helicopter … no-one is immune.”
STARS air emergency response teams provide rapid medical assistance across the prairies and have responded to more than 33,000 calls in the three decades of its existence.
The non-profit organization relies on millions of dollars each year to continue its critical care operations, which includes helicopter maintenance, payments to doctors, nurses, dispatchers and more. In this province alone, the service responds to an average of four calls each day at a cost of $5,400 per flight.
Over the summer, Harvie matched his donors dollar for dollar and collected more than $120,000 from about 110 personal friends and family and five area organizations: BrokerLink Insurance, Urban Systems, Cochrane Toyota, Two Pharmacy and the Bow RiversEdge Campground Society.
“People are very generous,” Harvie said. “It all counts.”
For the Sept. 29 challenge day, STARS officials flew the group of executives – including Harvie, Katch Kan founder Quinn Holtby, Stream-Flo Industries president Mark McNeill and CORE Network Solutions president Reid Johnson – from Calgary to Moose Mountain for a day of training exercises.
Harvie said the CEOs’ first bit of action began soon after they hit the tarmac: seeing how fast they could dress in their jumpsuits and helmets and strap themselves into the chopper.
Since Harvie was considered the fastest – “I put coveralls on all the time,” he joked – he was given first dibs on choosing equipment for their next challenge: to build a shelter once they got to their remote location.
It took about 30 minutes for the Cochrane area farmer to construct his protective covering using a tarp, hoop and rope.
“I could have stayed in there for a week,” Harvie said. “It was on a bed of moss. It was comfy.”
The rest of the Survivor-style day was spent living a “day in the life” of the STARS service personnel. The CEOs triaged a family of “victims” with different medical emergencies: the son suffered anaphylaxis after a bee sting, the dad had a heart attack, mom fell and bumped her head and the daughter had a sore ankle.
Performing CPR for two minutes, inserting an IV into a turkey leg, intubating a dummy and putting a patient onto a backboard rounded out the challenges.
By 3 p.m., the executives had raised nearly $400,000 for STARS and were headed back to Calgary in the helicopter to celebrate their accomplishments at an afterparty.
Harvie said this is the type of fundraiser he will only do once – but he’s proud his network reached deep into their pockets to help such a worthwhile organization … and he’s happy STARS gave him a souvenir to remember the adventure experience.
“I get to keep the coveralls,” he said with a laugh.
