The Red Deer Royals are going straight to the top.
In a bid to finish paying for their new home in the Kinsmen Fieldhouse at St. Joseph’s High School, members of the community and marching band are writing letters to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, to ask for his support.
“The Red Deer Royals Marching Show Band has been a prominent feature of life (in) Central Alberta for almost five decades,” the letter begins, before members are required to contribute their personal statements about why the band deserves a $500,000 grant.
Ray McBeth, funding director for the Red Deer Royals Alumni Association, hopes regular Red Deerians and Red Deer County residents will also go to bat for the band by write letters to Trudeau. “I’d like to make everybody aware and involved.”
The idea germinated from a recent conversation McBeth had with Blaine Calkins, Conservative MP for Red Deer-Lacombe.
McBeth recalled telling Calkins how difficult it’s been for smaller non-profits, such as the Royals, to fundraise in Central Alberta’s difficult economy.
The MP looked into various federal grant programs, and found none that fit the Royals’ cause, so McBeth suggested to Calkins, “why don’t we write a personal letter to Trudeau and you can personally deliver it?”
Calkins thought the idea might have more impact if the Royals wrote 1,000 letters and he delivered the entire lot to the Liberal prime minister’s office. “He said he could even stand up in the House and talk about the Red Deer Royals,” stressing the group’s long contributions to the community, said McBeth.
They both figured it was worth a shot.
The campaign is steaming ahead. It was only started this week, and 400 letters have come in so far.
The Royals must pay $2.7 million, or half of the fieldhouse’s costs (the other half is coming from the Red Deer Catholic Regional School District). The band moved into this new space last spring, but still needs to drum up about $700,000 towards construction and equipment expenses.
Besides asking for Trudeau’s contribution, the Royals’ alumni association is also hitting up Red Deer County, since a quarter of young Red Deer Royals musicians hail from the rural area around Red Deer.
To access the email version of the letter to Prime Minister Trudeau, please visit www.reddeerroyals.com. The deadline is Nov. 15.
lmichelin@reddeeradvocate.com
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