The Prince George Animal Rescue Society is $14,000 taller in the saddle.
The society was lifted to that new financial height in less than an hour, when 100 local heroes pooled their money and rode this local charity to victory.
The society took home the whole purse collected by the 100 Heroes organization. It was the first cheque presentation event ever held by the new philanthropy campaign, and the tears shed by founder and operator Nicola Redpath illustrated the power of this initiative. She called the big financial windfall a transformative turn for her ability to protect the most vulnerable animals of the region.
For those who don't know of the local animal rescue society, it is a farm in the Pineview neighbourhood of Prince George that takes in all manner of livestock in need of rescuing. These animals are often in medical distress, often suffering from malnutrition, and they eat. A lot.
"We have lots of skinnies, lots of SPCA horses, those are always the worst ones," said Redpath, describing the menagerie right now. "And a tonne of dogs, just an influx, lately. We have 12 dogs right now, and four rescue horses. Plus, there's a meat auction coming up so we'll be going to that and maybe save a few more horses from there. That's the last stop, for those guys."
The money comes at almost the same time John Brink and his group of companies made their annual donation, so the farm is about to undergo a transformation. Brink, a local wood products and real estate entrepreneur, is in year three of a five-year pledge to the animal rescue society for cash and lumber. That, and the new, unexpected windfall of $14,000, means a rush of construction can take place.
Redpath identified some of the society's priorities.
They will install automatic waterers with winter warming abilities, so hours per day are not devoted by the organization's volunteers just to make rounds of water delivery to the troughs of the farm.
New fencing can be built, to streamline the penning facilities for the large livestock.
The dog section can receive an upgrade to kennels and storage.
The cat section will be upgraded to allow the distressed felines access to a safe outdoor enclosure as well as their indoor recovery room.
And perhaps most importantly, the farm's fields needed a major facelift so they can grow more of their own hay supply. The wildfires this past summer cause the price of hay to skyrocket, and the supply of hay to be depleted all across the region. It put a huge personal burden onto Redpath's family as well as the society they run.
Redpath feels incredibly lucky to be the recipient of this big pool of money. It was rare enough that someone joined the 100 Heroes club and used one of their three nomination tickets to name the Prince George Animal Rescue Society as a worthy local cause. It was rare enough that the society ticket was drawn as one of the three finalists. But it was especially rare that Redpath was able to prevail at the finals.
Each of the three finalists - the other two were School District 57's Community Schools Program and the AiMHi organization - gets to tell a short story about themselves at a meeting of the 100 Heroes. The heroes then vote on which of the three they reacted to best.
"I thought I was going to throw up," said Redpath. "My stomach was in knots right as soon as I arrived. It came in waves of nausea. That was the longest five minutes of my entire life. It wasn't even the public speaking, I've done that before, but it was just the thought of what was on the line. The stakes were just enormous for us - the thought of what we could do with all that money."
Colin Breadner, the founder of the 100 Heroes campaign in Prince George, said he felt like a million dollars himself afterwards, and he could see the same amazement and joy all around the room when the finalists were telling their stories.
"I couldn't sleep that night. I was just buzzing to be part of that," said Breadner. "We got to see such a huge impact made in just a few moments, because we all got together and from an affordable $100 each we were able to change the life of a community organization that will impact how many other lives as a result of the better work they'll be able to do, now."
Breadner said Redpath buckled over when the winner was announced and he honestly worried that her fear of vomit might actually come true.
"Her reaction was amazing. There were tears. Everyone in the room was feeling it together," he said. "And I noticed something else, too. There were all walks of life in that room. Every background of person you could imagine was represented by these people who paid their $100 (140 took up the challenge, hence the $14,000 total), and that really included a lot of millennials. I know people have said some harsh things in society about the millennial generation, but that was shot down completely with this campaign. There were a lot of young people involved, and that's a generation that is completely comfortable with the idea of crowd-sourcing money for important causes. One Hundred Heroes is just a variation of that. Instead of everything impersonal on a computer, though, this brings people into the same room where you can be part of the final decision and meet the people who are doing these amazing things in our community."
The three speeches were all video recorded by Pop Media who will provide them to the three charities as a legacy piece they can use in future for their marketing. It's one more way the 100 Heroes initiative can help worthy local causes.
Since the animal rescue society was the winner of the prize, it is not eligible for future editions of the campaign for the next 18 months. AiMHi and School District 57's Community Schools can go back into the pool of possible winners immediately. Breadner said the next round would be coming soon. Follow the 100 Heroes PG page on Facebook for updates.
