AAAS is proud to announce emergency aid funding provided by Farm Credit Canada (FCC) to support our dedicated Agricultural Society Members who have incurred expenses while assisting their communities during the 2023 Alberta wildfires.
We understand the significant impact that these wildfires have had on our agricultural communities, and we are committed to providing assistance where it is needed the most.
We would like to Give Thanks to the following Ag Societies that helped their surrounding communities and congratulate them on being the recipients of the emergency aid funding provided by FCC.
Sangudo and District Agricultural Society
Livestock area usage for animals from the Wildwood area fire (panels and water/power for livestock) – approx. 3 week period
Lac Ste. Anne County – Emergency Social Services – Arena used for reception centre for evacuees –Â waived rental fee (May 5)
Meals on Wheels – Food supplied for Lac Ste. Anne County employees (working ESS) and evacuees (May 5)
Utility costs (extra power & gas ) to provide reception centre for evacuees
Additional cleaning costs for cleaning services/contractor for reception centre for evacuees- (after LSAC May 5 -560 wildfire)
Yellowhead Agricultural Society
During the recent wildfire evacuation of Edson and parts of Yellowhead County, the Yellowhead Agricultural Society collaborated with the County to provide safe refuge for several horses (stalled in our riding facility) and 25 head of cattle in our pasture. Our volunteer board members made daily trips to monitor the animals during this time, and ensure that they were safe, watered, and fed with hay (provided by the County).  For news coverage of the evacuation see https://globalnews.ca/news/9768310/edson-yellowhead-county-alberta-wildfires-evacuation/
Breton Agricultural Society
The Breton Agricultural Society purchased food to feed the firefighters at the Buck Creek fire from May 6 to May 9, 2023.
Volunteers prepared 2935 meals over those 4.5 days, and we had just under 100 people volunteer to shop, prepare, and deliver meals to the men and women fighting the fires in our area.
Over 400 hours were donated to assist with the meals. These hours do not include delivery of the meals or shopping of the groceries.
The costs incurred to feed the firefighters were groceries totaling in value of approximately $6500.
The cost of delivering these meals, gas to get groceries, rental of the Community Centre to prepare meals and volunteer time was all donated by members of our community.
Tomahawk & District Sports Agricultural Society
On May 4, 2023, the town of Drayton Valley was evacuated due to a wildfire. A lot of the evacuees travelled through the hamlet of Tomahawk in hopes to reach their designated evacuation centre which was Wabamun or the Edmonton Expo center. As a community we opened our hall in the early morning of May 5th as there were a lot of people needing washrooms/a place to rest. In the morning we provided pancakes, coffee & water to anyone needing a meal to carry on. We did have 15 families who decided to stay at the Tomahawk Agra in their campers the entire duration of the evacuation (11 days). During this we provided meals, power to some campers who needed it & had clothes donated. We were able to provide 700 + meals in the 6 days evacuees had complete access to the inside of our hall. We did use some supplies that were already in the hall for meals, we had local community members donate food & some generous companies that donated. All meals were prepared in the hall. We were able to find a projector to stream Oiler playoff games, we provided access to library resources, crib boards/cards & a large open grass area.
Valleyview & Districts Agricultural Society
They opened our facility and grounds to the SLCN, Little Smoky and areas to house pets and livestock. On day one we also were the evacuation point for the children of the SLCN school until the parents could pick them up. As the need increased, we put every building on site to use, as a result the Exhibit Hall was used to house the cats/kittens, the Riding Arena was outfitted with panels to make kennels for medium to large dogs along with the Barn which was used for the large dogs. The Hall then housed the small dogs and all the supplies, all the outside pens were used for livestock, in addition to this they had set up space on the grounds for anyone who wanted to stay in their campers. Once all the pets and livestock were gone there was a huge clean up to be done before they could open our facility back up to the members and public.
