Southern Alberta residents host fundraiser for families after serious crash on Highway 5

A three-vehicle crash on highways 5 and 52, south of Lethbridge on Thursday, Oct. 11, sent five teenagers from the same high school in Magrath to the hospital.

All five boys were transported to hospitals in Lethbridge and Calgary, two suffering serious, non-life-threatening injuries and one classified as having serious, life-threatening injuries.

As way to help support the families with medical costs, transport to hospitals and time off work, a group of local Magrath women decided to host a fundraiser.

Simone Dahl and the instructors at High Fitness were initially organizing a Halloween class when they heard about the collision.

They quickly changed gears and turned it into a silent auction and fitness class with proceeds going to the boys’ families.

“When something as horrific as what happened happens in this kind of small community, I just feel like everyone feels the effects of it,” Simone Dahl said.

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“We didn’t think the fundraiser would be anything huge, we just thought maybe we would charge a certain amount for people to come for the class and then we would donate whatever we raised. Then people started contacting us for silent auction items, like donations and within one week we have collected thousands of dollars of silent auction items that people have donated.”

The fundraiser runs Tuesday from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at Jenex Construction in Magrath. The silent auction going from 7:30 p.m. to 8:20 p.m. A drop-in family friendly fitness class will be held for an hour at 8:30 p.m., for a minimum $10 donation.

Organizers say the outpouring of support from people all around southern Alberta has been amazing.

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“It has been incredible, very heartwarming, the generosity blows my mind,” Dahl said. “We have about seven tables full of things for people to look at, we have a DJ, so we’ll have music going, and we’ve had popcorn donated from the Movie Mill in Lethbridge, and water and pop donated from the Raymond Mercantile.”