Last month the Hussar Ag Society was up for a nice award from BASF with their Growing Home program.
The program is distributing a total of $160,000 throughout four provinces to 12 different community organizations. One of those was the Hussar Ag Society and they ended up taking the top prize in Alberta, $25,000. They received the top prize after having the most votes out of the three different organizations for Alberta. Brad Dundas shares that the Hussar Ag Society is over the moon with the win. “We’re very excited. It is going to go a long way to help us keep our arena going, help us with the maintenance, and to keep our main hub of our community running.” The other two organizations they were up against were the Buffalo Valley Community Hall ($10,000) south of Vegreville, and the Eaglesham and District Ag Society ($5,000).
Image courtesy of BASF
The Hussar Arena is a focal point of the small community 30 minutes south of Drumheller. “The winter months, every weekend, there is no parking. It is packed, everybody is there playing hockey, ringette, skating lessons, curling, or there to hang out,” comments Dundas. “We go there to pretty well see everybody all winter.”
The $25,000 will help to pay for a big improvement the board had to purchase years ago admits Dundas. “We had to put a new ice plant in two years ago so we have to pay that off faster now with the money we won. Also, we have some maintenance and utility bills which have sure gotten expensive over the last few years. It is not cheap to run these big facilities in the cold winter.”
The group always fundraises through out the year notes Dundas. “The Ag Society try to do at least two or three fundraisers a year. We have our annual Stag Auction in November and we just hosted a hypnotist in the hall a couple of weeks ago. We also have our first annual golf tournament coming up here on the third Saturday in June. We’re looking to do as much fundraising as possible to keep the rink running.”
To keep updated with the events and fundraising efforts for the Hussar Ag Society, visit the Hussar and Area Bulletin Board Facebook page, contact Brad Dundas through Facebook, or reach out by email at hussaragsociety@gmail.com
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