TRIBUNE - Radius Credit Union’s Tribune branch found a new way to attract some funds towards the upcoming Telemiracle fundraiser.
This year its employees teamed up and offered their customers a "one in a lifetime" opportunity, as they called it, to win a chance to pie them in exchange for donations.
"Every year we raise money for Telemiracle. We usually have a bake sale, or we had slash burgers one year, and it goes really well. But with the pandemic we chose not to," said Dianne Chapman, business development manager with Radius Credit Union Tribune branch.
Instead of doing a traditional fundraiser this year, the branch opted to offer people an opportunity to let their emotions out.
"If people donate $20, they get an opportunity to pie me in the face. And I've been here for 42 years, so I just thought there might be a few people out there that would be wanting to do that," Chapman said with a laugh.
"And then for $100 people get to pie our whole branch staff in the face. It's just something different that we thought of."
Donors will be entered into a draw and two lucky winners will get to pie Chapman and the rest of the staff, including Roseanna Stendall, Nicki Berg, Sarah Peters and Pam Groshong. Chapman said the date will be announced later and everybody will be welcome to come over.
The donations will be accepted right up until Telemiracle, which will take place on March 5-6 this year.
Chapman said they had quite a bit of interest already and were able to raise $1,400 as of Feb. 16. Their goal this year is $2,000 to take to Telemiracle.
The Tribune branch has been supporting Telemiracle for years, but this will be the first time they do a pie fundraiser.
"There are lots of fundraisers at schools where they pie teachers and that's a big deal. And we've never done something like this, so I just tried to think of something different and talk to the staff and they were willing to do it and it was just born like that," Chapman explained.
All donations will also be entered to win a door prize, which is a coffee basket.
Donations of over $10 come with a tax receipt. To buy Telemiracle hands, people can call the branch at 306-456-2215 or stop by. Payment can be done over e-transfer, cash, cheque, credit or debit card.
"We just like to support Telemiracle," Chapman said.