HALO helicopter. (Supplied by HALO Air Ambulance)

By David Opinko

With fundraising success, HALO extends medevac services, but “fight not over”

Jun 2, 2020 | 12:19 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – The Southern Alberta community came together in a big way over the last week to support HALO Air Ambulance.

The medical rescue service has been struggling financially, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in many of their typical fundraisers being cancelled.

The Free Fry Day event on May 29 saw $350,000 raised in a single day. There were also two Facebook auction pages recently, one of which HALO claims garnered nearly $200,000.

“The outpouring of community support has been nothing short of miraculous,” says HALO Ceo Paul Carolan. “We exist to help people when they need us most, when we announced we needed help, those same people rose to the challenge.”

As a direct result of these fundraisers, HALO has announced the immediate extension of full medevac operations until at least the end of the provincial government’s Helicopter Emergency Medical Service review.

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There were concerns that this service might have to be scrapped if they could not pull in enough donations.

However, Carolan says the fight is not over.

He is continuing to advocate for stable funding from the Government of Alberta so they do not have to rely solely on community support and occasional grants.

“We also can’t take the pressure off the Government of Alberta. The people of southern Alberta have spoken clearly, and definitively, they believe their government should at least do their part, and they are tired of feeling like second-class citizens because they live in rural Alberta.”

According to HALO, they are able to serve parts of southern Alberta that other air ambulance providers are not able to cover, “providing rapid response to areas that normally wouldn’t be reached within a reasonable timeframe.”

“Considering the immeasurable gap, the loss of the HALO program would create, we are not asking for the unreasonable. $250,000 a month to operate a program that is deeply invested in our communities; a program that believes in making EVERY penny count; a program that saves lives. It’s a small price to pay when you consider the extremely limited financial investment of the provincial government to date.”

HALO has launched a new online donation site, which can be accessed here.