OUTLOOK - The fundraising drive to raise money and acquire in-kind services and pledges for the construction of a brand new fire hall in the town of Outlook has been quite the story to watch unfold.
Last June, fundraising co-chairs Bree Campbell and Gerry Gross sat down with this reporter to talk about the strategy of just how they would go about raising funds and collecting pledges in order to realize the dream of a new fire hall in the riverside community.
Fast forward to right now in February, and it's been nothing short of a roller coaster ride of upward momentum, as the campaign has now raised $1 million in donations and pledges.
John Linsley, one of the fundraising campaign members, is astounded and grateful at what the community has accomplished with this monumental achievement, which was reached in a timeline of inside of a year. Linsley noted that the site, blueprints and project management are in place for the new hall and local contractors are being asked for proposals, showing that this proverbial locomotive has no intentions of stopping anytime soon and that construction is on track for a start date of this spring.
Campbell says seeing the campaign come together as well as it has has been great to experience.
"That it IS coming together, really," she said. "It's been a year and we've had just incredible generosity from our community. It's just heartwarming that this is going to actually happen. We've started to award tenders, and so that's really exciting."
One of the challenges that the fire crew faces today with their current setup is time; working quickly in order to respond to a call as fast as they can. Campbell says there are always a handful of unanswered questions that the crew won't know answers to until they arrive at their destination, and having the new facility will certainly help speed things up in order to address any and all concerns.
"I think that out in the country, there is a wide variety of possible catastrophes that they have to respond to, and they're not going to be going into multiple buildings, so it'll be a quicker response time," she said. "That will be great, and also, because the building is going to accommodate modern vehicles, we'll be able to update some of that equipment as well."
The journey to the project being fully funded continues, and Bree says that in today's ever-shifting environment, the costs of materials and construction is always closely monitored. She remains hopeful that the fundraising will match real-world dollar figures of what today's costs are going to be for the hall.
"We're just getting our budget numbers hopefully in the next two weeks, but you know, everything goes up in price over time," she said. "We just want to make sure that our fundraising matches the real dollar amount of today and then we'll be able to start putting out more tenders for the next stages. Things that have been tendered are the dirt work and bringing in the utilities from the street. If everything adds up, we'll be ready to start this spring."
Bree said that she and Gerry entered into this campaign with the best of attitudes and a healthy level of optimism, and she's "beyond pleased" to see how far it's come and such a remarkable amount of time. She says that other communities around the province that may be in the market for new infrastructure of their own might be looking for inspiration or tips on how to move forward, and if so, the people involved in the Outlook campaign are always willing to talk with people or help point them in the right direction.
Taking part in such a notable task of spearheading a fire hall fundraising campaign has opened Campbell's eyes to the level of how people come together in their home community to fight and do their part for one common goal among everyone.
"I would expect so," she said, on other communities maybe becoming inspired by what Outlook is currently doing. "We have a big committee working on this, so their network of people is that much bigger, so I'm sure that they'll all tell their story. One of the things that inspired me to be a part of this; in the beginning, we had hired this philanthropic organization because I didn't really know the first thing about raising money, there are obviously huge capital campaigns that go on every year and I just needed to know how that happened because I'm going to be in this community for the rest of my life, and this is just one project that this group of people can learn how to do and operate, and then it becomes whatever is next. So we now have this kind of community knowledge, which is great."
Having reached the impressive 'million-dollar milestone', the targeted fundraising goal of Outlook's new fire hall is now within reach, with a further $200,000 allowing the goal of $1.2 million to be reached.
