Despite a heavy spring snowfall, Royal LePage® Wildrose Real Estate recently gathered with the Mountain View Emergency Shelter Society and a large crowd in Olds, AB to celebrate the groundbreaking for a new emergency women’s shelter in their community.
When built, this shelter will be known as Kirsten’s Place in honour of a young local mother of twin boys who lost her life to family violence in 2021. Kirsten’s Place will have six rooms and will be the first emergency shelter for women in the county, which is located between Calgary and Red Deer.
As in many corners of the country, the demand for services and support for women fleeing intimate partner violence in Olds has been rising since well before the COVID-19 pandemic. “The need is huge. We have one outreach worker and one program worker and in 2023 they dealt with 212 clients in Mountain View County and had 48 people attend their programs,” said Joe Carignan, president of the Mountain View Emergency Shelter Society.
The town of Olds donated the portion of land on which the shelter will be built and the province contributed $125,000, but the majority of the $800,000 raised came from the community. A huge driver behind this fundraising success has been the efforts of Royal LePage Wildrose Real Estate who have raised more than $300,000 through their annual Radio-thon for Shelter.
“Having been fundraising to get this shelter built for the last six years, we are absolutely delighted to finally get to this day,” said Clare Dickie, owner/manager, Royal LePage Wildrose Real Estate. “It’s so heartening to see all our hard work and the incredible generosity of our community begin to take shape before our eyes.” she added.
“While there are Royal LePage offices from coast to coast generously supporting their local women’s shelters, it’s a very rare and special occurrence when a brokerage can be so heavily involved in building a new shelter from the ground up,” said Lisa Gibbs, executive director of the Royal LePage® Shelter FoundationTM. “Through years of fundraising and advocacy, Royal LePage Wildrose Real Estate have made clear to their community just how desperately needed the services of this shelter are and what a safe and supportive haven it will be for families fleeing intimate partner violence. We couldn’t be more proud and grateful for this groundbreaking and all the brighter, safer and more hopeful tomorrows that it represents.”
The 4th Annual Radio-thon for Shelter, generously hosted by 96.5 ckfm, takes place Wednesday, May 15. To make a donation in support of the ongoing construction and operation of Kirsten’s Place, please click here.
