The spirit of St. Patrick will be alive and well March 14 at the 15th annual Shamrock Shimmy in support of the Airdrie Food Bank (AFB).
The Irish-themed evening at the Town and Country Centre will include dinner, cocktails, dancing and live entertainment, as well as a raffle and auction.
“Everybody has a little bit of Irish in them on that day, and we have a blast,” said Christine Taylor, AFB events, marketing and communications manager. “It’s a fun night, and you can help our community by coming.”
Along with the Empty Bowls Arts Festival in September, the Shamrock Shimmy is one of the food bank’s biggest fundraisers of the year, according to Taylor. The yearly St. Patrick’s Day shindig typically sees upwards of 250 people in attendance and generates, on average, roughly $30,000 each March, which is more than five per cent of the organization’s annual operating budget.
“We served almost 40,000 people [in 2019], so it’s gone up quite a bit,” she said. “Our food community bins and food drive [donations] only went up two per cent, so we’re not able to keep up with the demand of the need in our community.”
As Alberta's economy continues to struggle, Airdrie’s food bank has seen increased usage in recent years. Food bank clients increased by nine per cent in 2019 compared to 2018, according to Taylor, who added 43 per cent of AFB’s users are children.
With just 10 per cent of its funding coming from government grants, she said community support is crucial in keeping AFB sustainable.
“[The Shimmy is] very important for us because it helps carry us through to the end of the year,” Taylor said. “We have a busy time at Christmas, with mostly food donations, and that food has to last us throughout the year. The money that comes in from this fundraiser is essential for continuing our kids’ programs, in particular.”
She said the organization offers breakfast, lunch and snack programs at 31 schools in Airdrie, and those programs have all seen increased usage.
“Our snack program usage has gone up 19 per cent, our breakfast program is up 43 per cent and our lunches are up 11 per cent,” Taylor said.
The Shamrock Shimmy will include a roast beef dinner, complete with an assortment of salads, vegetables, roast potatoes and dessert options. Differing from past iterations, Taylor said, this year will mark the first time the food bank has prepared the meal itself.
“We’re very excited to put a lot of love into the food this year,” she said. “We’ve put a team of volunteers together, and we have a Red Seal chef who is heading the catering and we’ll be cooking the food ourselves.”
An item in the raffle Taylor expects to be popular is two tickets to anywhere WestJet flies. Raffle tickets can be purchased ahead of time at the food bank, Color Me Mine Airdrie or Budget Blinds.
“Those tickets are sometimes very hard to get, so we’re very excited to have been gifted those from WestJet,” she said. “They are $10 each and we’ve only printed 1,000 tickets, so they’re going fast.”
Taylor encourages residents to purchase the tickets, as selling all 1,000 would fund up to 4,000 school-breakfast-program meals.
Tickets to the Shimmy are $60 per person or $400 for a table of eight and can be purchased online at airdriefoodbank.com
For further information, corporate sponsorship inquiries or to donate an auction item, call 403-948-0063 or email [email protected]
Scott Strasser, AirdrieToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @scottstrasser19
