THUNDER BAY – Turn-key Communications held a golf fundraiser in support of Northwestern Ontario Air Search and Rescue Association at St. Urho’s Golf Course in Nolalu on Saturday.
The fundraiser was able to collect $10,000 and NOASARA was presented a cheque that will benefit them widely.
Terry Joseph, president of Turn-key Communications, said this is the second annual fundraiser and Turn-key will continue to support the NOASARA.
“It's a memorial tournament for a pilot that passed away a few years ago. search and rescue was an integral part of finding and locating him for his family.
“One of our employees was the godfather of that particular person and he brought it to us to ask us if we would be on board with supporting his initiative to raise money for the search and rescue,” he said.
Joseph said they are proud to support the NOASARA, and could not be happier with the amount raised this year.
“We raised $3,000 last year $10,000 this year,” he said.
Joseph said their marketing coordinator had reached out to all of their suppliers and partners in Thunder Bay and everyone donated money. Turn-key Communications matched every dollar raised, which came out to $5,000, bringing their total amount to $10,000 raised.
“Turn-key will be here to support NOASARA going forward and we hope it gets to big numbers and then we can help search and rescue buy new equipment and help pay for expenses.”
Joseph was happy to see the great turnout at the event.
“We couldn't be more happy and emotional about it. We like to support community events and the community organizations and if we can give back, we want to try our best.
“Today's world, financially and post COVID, especially charitable organizations are really struggling and so are businesses. I think community involvement is a responsibility of corporations. As you grow and as you get more successful, I feel like we should give back,” Joseph said.
Joseph thanked Lyle Carlson for organizing the event.
“We’re more than happy to support the search and rescue organization and we'll continue to do so,” Joseph said.
Bryan Davis, chairman of the board at the Northwestern Ontario Air Search and Rescue Association, said this will keep air search and rescue up and running.
“Our main focus is on downed aircraft, searching for what they call an ELT an electronic locator transmitter. We do assist in searching for lost hikers, lost kayakers, people like that.
“As you can imagine it's a big region. Having an aircraft up is a real asset for anyone who's lost,” he said.
NOASARA is apart of Civil Air Search and Rescue Association (CASARA) which is the Search and Rescue Association for all of Canada.
“It's really under the direction of the military. But there are units like ours, a Thunder Bay unit, all across Canada. That's the people who are going to be searching for downed aircraft or lost hikers or kayakers anywhere that they are under the direction of the military,” he said.
Davis said everyone is blown away by the support.
“It's just wild to get such a community support for us. What this will mean for us is that we can do a lot more training and we can replenish gas and equipment as needed a lot more quickly.”
Davis said he came out last year early, because he had never been there before.
“I remember seeing the first few vehicles arrive and then more, and then more, and then more. It's like, whoa, there's a lot of people here supporting us. It's even bigger this year.
“It’s pretty amazing, pretty heartwarming to see that come together, building a community out of a tragedy,” he said.