$600,000 donation to help train rural first responders

Calgary A $600,000 donation to STARS will go a long way toward training and operations across the Prairies.

Farm Credit Canada (FCC), a financial services company based out of Regina that specializes in agricultural lending, committed the money over four years, STARS announced in a news release Friday.

STARS president and CEO Andrea Robertson said the gift will be used to support day-to-day operations at bases in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

“I’ve struggled since I started this job with how to say thank you ... but when FCC employees look up to the skies and see us flying overhead they need to know they helped save a life,” she said.

The newest donation from the FCC brings their total contribution to STARS to $1.1 million.

The money will also go toward STARS’ mobile education program, which provides critical care education to doctors, nurses and first responders in rural areas at no cost to them.

“We go into these small rural communities with our big bus that has a simulator and we run them though the latest and greatest updates to care in major trauma,” Robertson said.

“It’s been wonderful because they know what they’re doing and when they call us they’ve already started necessary treatment.”

In the release, FCC’s CMO Todd Klink said they’re proud to be able to contribute to such a vitally important organization.

“Each year STARS flies thousands of missions in and around the same rural communities served by FCC.

We have seen the positive impacts STARS has had during some very difficult times,” Klink said.

According to the STARS website, they’ve conducted more than 40,000 missions since 1985.

Just under 2,900 missions are flown yearly from their bases across Western Canada with the majority, 1,434, out of Alberta.

Medical transports account for 65 per cent of STARS flights. Vehicle incidents come in second at 17 per cent followed by recreational incidents at seven per cent.

Government contributions account for nearly 38 per cent of STARS total yearly funding.

Donations and fundraising are close behind at 32.3 per cent.

“We get lots of attention for donations like this,” Robertson said. “But STARS is very grateful for every dime ... we owe so much to our donors.”