The five participants from the second annual STARS Rescue on the Prairie fundraiser from 2016 have their picture taken with a STARS helicopter. Garth MacDonald (second from left), president and CEO of G-Mac’s AgTeam Inc., is participating in the fundraiser on Sept. 13 for a second time. (In photo l-r) Grant McGrath, president and CEO of Western Sales Ltd., MacDonald, Trina Bird, a safety advisor for AECOM, Doug Lapchuk, who was president of the Saskatchewan Volunteer Fire Fighter’s Association, and Grant Greenslade, director at Spartan Energy and chairman of Twilight Drilling at the time.

Kenneth Brown
of The Crossroads

The fourth annual STARS Rescue on the Prairies fundraiser is now in progress, and an area businessman is participating in the event for a second time in three years.

Garth MacDonald, the president and CEO of G-Mac’s AgTeam Inc., is one of five Saskatchewan community leaders waiting to be whisked away by STARS helicopter on Sept. 13 and flown to an unknown location to compete in challenges while raising money for STARS Air Ambulance.

In the spirit of the event, each of the five participants has to raise $50,000 in order to be rescued from the unknown prairie location. MacDonald was one of five participants in 2016 and he is going back for round two. The other four participants are Tyler Crozier, owner of Crozier Ag, JoeAnne Hardy, president of WBM Technologies, Sarah Johnston, vice-president of sales and marketing at Group Medical Services, and Dale Ziegler, president of Canadian Plains Energy Services.

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The five participants have already started to collect donations in preparation for the big day. The participants will all be armed with their cellular phones on Sept. 13 as a means of connecting with people to solicit donations. The participants also compete in various challenges.

In 2016, one of the challenges was to see how much money each person could raise in an hour by calling people on that day. Each of the participants has been asked to set a fundraising goal of $50,000 in total, but MacDonald hopes to raise more.

“My personal goal this year is to raise $200,000,” the businessman said, recognizing that he raised $150,000 in 2016 during his first experience and he aspires to eclipse the benchmark because the service needs “much more” to operate.

He noted that STARS reached out to ask him if he would be willing to participate again, and he was quick to accept the challenge. He said it is such a good cause and an important cause for residents of rural Saskatchewan.

MacDonald said there are several benefits to living in rural Saskatchewan, but timely emergency health care is one of the challenges of living in a rural area. He said first responders do a great job, but there are limitations caused by the wide open spaces.

A STARS helicopter is able to transport a patient to hospital in Saskatoon or Regina in a fraction of the time it takes to transport a patient using ground transport, and every second counts in the event of a medical emergency, he said.

The businessman said STARS Air Ambulance is a passionate organization and that passion is on display every time a mission is flown. A total of 874 missions were flown over the 2016-17 fiscal year with an average cost of $5,400 per mission, but the economic benefits of missions are six times greater than the cost of missions. MacDonald said the staff does an awesome job of dealing with the pressures.

“Every time they’re getting in that helicopter, they know that it could be very bad and yet they’re up for the challenge every time,” he said, recognizing that the STARS medical staff has to deal with trauma all the time. “They’re trained to save lives and that’s what they do.”

MacDonald said the provincial government funds 50 per cent of the annual cost to operate STARS, but the organization through the STARS Foundation has to raise the other 50 per cent of its operating funds. It is why he jumped at the opportunity to help.

He noted that most people in west central Saskatchewan know of a person who has benefitted from the service provided by STARS. He said there is very little awareness to create because people know of the STARS organization. The service is also important to G-Mac’s, so the company is matching the first $50,000 raised by MacDonald.

He said Sept. 15, 2016 was one of the most feel good days of his entire life. He added that his most vivid memories of the day are listening to STARS staff members talking about their experiences, and their passion is second to none.

“The word that just keeps coming to my mind is passion,” MacDonald said of everyone involved with STARS, adding that he encourages people to support his bid to be rescued and he looks forward to suiting up for the fundraiser.

Ashlyn Yablonski, a development officer of events for the STARS Foundation, said Rescue on the Prairies has been a very successful fundraiser for the organization since starting up in 2015. She said the goal for the fundraiser is to raise $500,000.

The organization has its annual fundraising lottery and various other events, but Rescue on the Prairies is one of the biggest fundraisers for the organization, she said. MacDonald is the first person to participate twice in the fundraiser and it is a special gesture, she said.

“It’s very humbling and it’s very exciting,” Yablonski said, recognizing that she believes MacDonald feels connected to STARS due to his rural roots. “For him to then use that platform to engage his employees (and) to engage the community to further give back to keep the service in the air, it’s incredible.”

She added that the need for fundraising dollars to keep STARS flying is the most important aspect of the organization for people to keep in mind. People could keep track of fundraising efforts for Rescue on the Prairies at the event website.

The participants are paired up with a STARS paramedic to help coach them through challenges that are often of a medical nature. Everyone involved in the event returns to Regina in the evening to enjoy a celebration.

To support the cause, people could go online to the Rescue on the Prairies website and click on MacDonald’s link. Donation forms are also available at all G-Mac’s AgTeam locations for people to pick up and complete.

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