The humane society is in need of donations and more volunteers as members of the board asked town council for assistance at a recent council meeting.

Council heard earlier this month the humane society, which houses felines and arranges for foster homes for dogs in the community, spends twice as much in operating costs as it gets in donations. They requested assistance from the town in next year’s budget to help cover the services it provides to the community.

Board president Megan Shearer says she hopes to see some funding from the town as the humane society is the only non-profit shelter in town which will take animals in.

“Most towns are giving to their humane societies. We’re hoping something comes through in 2019 – there’s no other option for a shelter in town.”

“It’s a constant battle,” says shelter manager Debra Busse. “This is where we’re at. We need help, we’re reaching out. We seriously depend on the community for our food and litter.”

Last month, the shelter was overpopulated with new kittens and the society posted on social media they were running very low on cat litter and the community stepped up, with the shelter stocked through November now.

“The amount of litter that came in was amazing, I just don’t want that to stop,” says Busse.

But the humane society depends on more than just litter and food donations to run successfully. The society is in constant need of volunteers who bring different expertise to the table, as well as volunteers to work at catering events or other odd-jobs offered to the society to help raise money to cover rising expenses and continual vet bills.

“We use money like it’s water,” says Shearer. “We use it faster than it comes in. We’re trying to be precautionary now because we want to ensure we’ll be open for the next 10 years.”

She says the society regularly gets food and litter donations, but also needs things like cleaning supplies, paper towels, and other products which add to operating expenses.

Prospective volunteers and people wishing to make donations can visit the shelter during operating hours to find out how they can help or where they could best fit into the society.

The humane society will be hosting their Santa Paws event at Drumheller Chrysler in December where pet owners can get their cat or dogs’ picture taken with Saint Nick. The annual Spaghetti Luncheon fundraiser will be held again in February.

The Village of Rockyford will have to wait until next year before it knows if curling will be back in the community.

The Mail reported last winter that the Rockyford Curling Rink would be closing due to the facility being in dire need of repair. The story went viral with its tale being told on national media outlets as well as the BBC.

Randy Melcher, Rockyford Curling Club President, said the club even received a donation all the way from Scotland.

While their fundraising efforts went well, including a GoFundMe campaign, the club was still far short of raising the funds to replace the floor of the curling rink, a bill estimated, at that time, to be $380,000.

  Melcher tells the Mail, the club still needs the support of a provincial Community Facility Enhancement Grant.

Unfortunately, the club was not successful in this round of the grant process. They were hoping to hear by August 31.

“We’re scared that we won’t get the grant,” he said. “We applied, we just have to wait until February of next year.”

  He is also concerned that by waiting, the price tag is expected to go up.

“We’ve been holding off because if we don’t get the money, we have to seriously think about what we are going to do,” he said. “We don’t want to do any more fundraising, because if we don’t get the grant, what are we going to do with the money? We’ll see what happens in the new year.”

Curling has been played in Rockyford for about 90 years.