Families impacted by the Fort McMurray wildfires had a chance to enjoy some food and music and get an unexpected gift that’ll make the holiday season much more merry.
WestJet hosted the Snowflake Soirée in Fort McMurray Saturday, which featured a free concert by country music artist Johnny Reid.
“It was amazing. I only heard about this happening by word of mouth. I registered thinking, ‘okay, a little something nice.’ You go down and it’s lit up, it’s just beautiful when you get there,” Barb Warner said.
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Parachutes were also dropped from the sky. Warner said each parachute had a Christmas ornament for each family in attendance, with a ticket for a free WestJet ticket inside for every family member.
“Anytime I talk about the nice things people have done since May, I cry. I don’t know how many people I hugged last night from WestJet, because like I told someone, they just put the merry back into Christmas,” Warner said.
WestJet said it wanted to give back to a community that’s had an extremely difficult year.
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During the past few years, the company has surprised people with early Christmas gifts and released Christmas Miracle advertisements based on the surprises.