Ticket sales a stunning success for Kiwanis Foundation of Hope Gala
The show of support by the community for the upcoming Kiwanis Foundation of Hope Gala in Swift Current has surprised and delighted the organizers.
The Kiwanis Club of Swift Current announced last fall that it will be hosting the Foundation of Hope Gala at the Living Sky Casino Event Centre on April 11, 2024.
The level of interest in the event resulted in tickets selling out even before the club was able to start with promotional activities.
Karla Wiens, a long-time club member and gala co-chair, appreciates this interest from the community in southwest Saskatchewan.
“The support has been overwhelming, but the generosity of our corner of the world never ceases to amaze me,” she said. “To see the community coming together like this is very heartwarming.”
She recalled how her thoughts about starting online ticket sales in the run-up to Christmas got no further due to what was already happening.
“It became apparent very quickly that we’re not going to have any to sell,” she said. “It just happened organically. It was all word of mouth, basically. People became aware and they started talking about it.”
A similar thing happened with regard to the efforts to obtain sponsorship support for the gala. There have been many generous donations, including monetary support and items for the different auctions and raffles.
“We are blown away by the amazing support that we have had from the community via sponsorship,” she said. “Our sponsorship team worked countless hours approaching different organizations in and around the community and what organically happened from that is an outpouring of support.”
Proceeds from the 2024 Foundation of Hope Gala will be donated to the Southwest Facility Foundation and the
Kiwanis Club of Swift Current, which will use the funds to support youth programming in the community.
The Southwest Facility Foundation is a non-profit community group that was established in late 2022 with a goal to raise $8 million to support the development of new recreational facilities by the City of Swift Current, whether it is an aquatic facility or a field house.
“The Facility Foundation is fundraising for the benefit of southwest Saskatchewan,” Wiens noted. “Facilities are an important thing for tourism, for employee attraction and retention. It all comes together. From Kiwanis’ standpoint, we have a special focus with our service club on youth in the community. So it fits nicely with our values and our goals and our mission, but it also benefits a whole lot of other demographics.”
The gala will be an elegant experience for attendees and the intention is to provide them with an evening of fun and entertainment while raising funds that will benefit the community. There will be raffles, live and silent auctions, and the opportunity to connect.
“Our goal is to have the attendees thoroughly engaged in the evening,”” she said. “This is about entertaining people and to create an atmosphere of giving.”
The event will feature celebrity auctioneer Danny Hooper, who will entertain gala attendees throughout the evening in his multiple roles as master of ceremonies, entertainer and fundraising auctioneer.
“He does this professionally all over North America for a living and that in itself is going to be a fun part of the evening,” Wiens said. We want people to have a good time all night.”
The hosting of the Foundation of Hope Gala is a significant step for the Kiwanis Club of Swift Current. It was previously organized by the former Swift Current United Way over a period of four years until 2018 and the Kiwanis decided to continue the event.
“This will be the biggest event that Kiwanis has hosted here,” she noted. “Our club members voted strongly in favour that we wanted to continue this event.”
The plans by the Kiwanis to host the event was brought to a halt by the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2024 Foundation of Hope Gala is therefore the first one to be organized by the club.
“I want to give kudos to the Kiwanis group,” she said. “There’s a lot of people involved in this. It has been all hands on deck and lots of us working together, because this is our first one and we want to do it really well. People who belong to the Kiwanis organization do so because we are community minded and we want to put on an event like no other so that