The City of Melfort is one of the communities that received a cheque from Kent Flavel (centre), director of the Humboldt Strong Community Foundation, for their efforts in providing support during the Humboldt Broncos bus crash on April 6, 2018. (Aaron Schulze/northeastNOW Staff)

By Aaron Schulze

HUMBOLDT GIVES BACK

Humboldt Strong Community Foundation giving back to northeast communities

Mar 27, 2019 | 4:57 PM

As the one-year anniversary of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash nears, the Northeast Saskatchewan communities who provided support in a time of the Broncos’ need are being appreciated and recognized.

The Humboldt Strong Community Foundation presented $100,000 cheques to the Town of Nipawin, Town of Tisdale, and City of Melfort. The City of Humboldt was presented with a $802,500 cheque and the Village of Zenon Park received $50,000. The contributions were for providing relief on the day of, and following days of the Broncos bus crash on April 6, 2018.

Kent Flavel, director of the Humboldt Strong Community Foundation, said the funds came from the near $4 million raised by the foundation.

“Everybody threw down everything they were doing and rushed to the scene and provided support,” Flavel said. “We’re grateful for all the support and showing our gratitude by paying it forward to these communities and allowing them to decide where these funds get used appropriately.”

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Flavel said the foundation hasn’t put any conditions on how the communities should spend the donations other than to honour the memory of the Humboldt Broncos players and personnel, as well as to the first responders and communities at large that assisted with the incident.

It appears the City of Melfort is taking the foundation’s request to heart, as Mayor Rick Lang said the city held a committee meeting to decide how they want to use the donation. Lang said there have been suggestions to put the money toward something related to sports, health, or to the first responders.

“What we want to do for sure, is we want to find a project that will benefit the community and something that will also honour the Humboldt Broncos team,” Lang said. “The City of Melfort truly appreciates this because we’re going to find a way to address using it in a way that it creates something that Melfort either needs or doesn’t have but is also something that we can connect to the hockey game.”

Lang said the letter from the foundation was unexpected, but said it shows the neighbourly bond the communities share.

“Had we not received the cheque it wouldn’t have changed anything,” he said. “On the ice we might be competitors, but when it comes to how we interact with each other community to community, we are all neighbours and we try to work together.”

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow