A fundraising run for STARS Air Ambulance at Poplar Ridge Elementary School on Thursday all started with one little girl’s love for her grandpa.
Jaimie Marchuk, 8, had the scare of a life when she watched her grandfather taken away from his home by paramedics in an ambulance one year ago, suffering from a heart attack.
“She has a twin brother and a younger sister and they were all pretty worried, but . . . something really bothered Jaimie,” said her dad, Doug.
“He had to be flown by STARS to Edmonton, and three times on the way there they had to bring him back around because his heart stopped. So when Jaimie found out about that, first she wanted to sell all of her toys to help fund STARS, and then she found out that she could just have her birthday party and have everybody donate money to STARS instead.”
Jaimie and her mother then brainstormed up Jaimie’s Run for STARS, which takes place at 11 a.m. at the school located in Red Deer County. After Jaimie, her mom and grandpa all went up to the STARS base in Edmonton, toured the facility, and met with the crew that saved the 68-year-old man’s life, STARS agreed to send a delegation (including their mascot Starbear) to Jaimie’s event to tell the kids about what the organization does.
The idea is that each student at the school will bring $1 to donate. The Red Deer Oilmen’s Association, of which Doug is a member, is donating $500, and the group Doug works with is donating another $600.
“I think it’s absolutely awesome. I’ve worked in the oilfield all my life, so if anything happens to me it’s going to be STARS coming to get me.”
Grandpa, who has now suffered six heart attacks, three strokes and survived cancer, is doing well and looking forward to getting in some golf this summer, Doug said.
“It’s quite amazing,” he said. “If you actually start talking to your friends or anybody you know, there’s a lot of people that either know people who have travelled by STARS or who have travelled by STARS themselves.”
In 2009, Red Deer was far and away the Alberta community most flown to in STARS ambulance missions.
mgauk@www.reddeeradvocate.com