Dinner hooks great support for fish habitat
Calgary is on a spending roll with records being smashed left and right. The recent tarp auction saw more than $4 million being spent. And fundraisers are raking in the dough like never before. There is perhaps no better example of this than the Trout Unlimited Canada (TUC) Conservation Dinner and Auction held recently at the Hyatt.
The dinner raised — wait for it — $1,025,000, bringing the net total raised to almost $10.5 million since its inception in 1986. Funds raised support myriad programs including stream restoration, scientific research and providing education through its Yellow Fish Road program. And in a stunning show of support, Gordon Ritchie, dinner chairman and vice-chairman, RBC Capital Markets, presented a cheque for $150,000 on behalf of Blue Water Project. This will enable TUC to increase riparian health, and improve water quality in the Drywood Creek Watershed system in southwest Alberta. Working in collaboration with Drywood-yarrow Conservation Partnership and Southwest Alberta Conservation Partnership, agricultural producers will be engaged to protect sensitive riparian areas from cattle grazing by installing protective fencing and off-stream livestock watering systems.
Guests in attendance at the awesome auction and dinner included: Premier Alison Redford who gave a brief address; Dave Byler, chairman, national board of directors, TUC; Jeff Surtees, CEO, TUC; Miles Davison’s Jim Miles, Q.C.; Paul Vickers, Penny Lane Entertainment; Glen Rumpel, Lexus of Calgary; Ted Morton, provincial minister of energy; Cindy Rutherford, Progress Energy Ltd.; Bill Brown, Elevate Auctions; Jim Hoey, Dimestore Fishermen; Birks’s Susanne Ventura, Deena Mcneill and Nicole Iwanicki; Barry Chug and his son Ben, Freshwater Creative who created all the videos and live auction presentations; Chris and Jennifer Bird, Fly Fusion Magazine; Matt Guiguet, owner of Fishing Kyuquot; Dave Jensen, owner of Fortress Lake Wilderness Retreat; Todd Zimmerling, CEO of the Alberta Conservation Association; Jeff Lawson and Cameron Plewes, Peters & Co.; Brian Pyra, Deloitte; Rafi Tahmazian, Canoe Financial and TUC board of directors; Tim Hamilton, Odgers Berndtson; Sean Phelan, Matrix Drilling Fluids; and Kevin Watson, Colliers International and TUC board of directors.