As members of a family with strong Kamsack connections, and their friends, hope for information regarding what had happened to a woman whose airplane went missing in late November, they plan to attend a fundraising event on Saturday.
The “Bring Mommy Home” fundraiser with a silent auction will be held March 17 at the Sportsman’s Pub in Edmonton. Proceeds raised will go to continuing search efforts to bring home Ashley Bourgeault and Dominic Neron, her pilot. Their plane went missing on November 25 while on route to Edmonton from Penticton, B.C.
Former Kamsack resident Diane (nee Koreluk) Bodnarek of Edmonton, who babysat and tutored Ashley, was placing posters around the community last week announcing the fundraiser.
“We would love to surprise our friends with donations from Kamsack,” Bodnarek said on Friday, adding that she and her sister Leona Grant of Saskatoon plan to attend the fundraiser.
“The plane vanished between Revelstoke and Golden,” Bourgeault’s sister Samantha McClellan said in information regarding the fundraiser. Search and rescue was dispatched… and continued for nine days.
Money raised to pay for drone and helicopter searches
The search was called off on December 4 and the file was transferred to Revelstoke RCMP as a passive search which meant that a search would not resume unless a clue is discovered, the information said.
Ashley is a 32-year-old loving mother of three beautiful children: Hailey, 9; Kimberley, 6, and John 4, it said. “Ashley was also an active part of our Edmonton community and worked as an educational assistant. She took great pride in building the foundation for quality of life for children with special needs. She is deeply cared for and missed by many.
“With our event, we hope to raise $10,000,” it said. The average cost of a private helicopter is $1,000 an hour. Money raised will also help cover the costs for a drone that will utilize a special attachment called a magnetometer which can detect metals at a larger depth than conventional metal detectors.
In addition to attending the fundraiser, persons may support the cause by donating at GoFundMe.com or may contribute at a TD Bank in the name of Ashley Bourgeault.
Bourgeault’s connections to Kamsack include former mayor Dan McLaughlin. He and his wife Alexia had six children: Lucille, Rosella, Sheila, Betty-Ann, Pat and Bill. In 1945 the couple moved to a farm three miles west of Kamsack where he was a grain and dairy farmer. Upon retirement, the couple moved into Kamsack where he served as a mayor, was a member of the Kamsack Credit Union board and became a life member of the Knights of Columbus.
In 1959 Lucille moved into Kamsack to live with her parents and raise her three children, Cheryl, Richard and Brian. She worked at the Kamsack Union Hospital for many years and after her children grew up, she married Ed Propp. In 1986, the couple moved to Penticton where her daughter Cheryl and granddaughter Megan also relocated. Her son Brian and wife Shelley live in Edmonton, while her son Richard and his wife Brenda live in Edmonton and have three children: Samantha, Richard and Ashley Bourgeault.
Bourgeault’s loved ones agreed they would not give up hope until the couple is found.
“We aren’t going to give up until we get them home one way or the other,” said her brother Richard.
Family members have narrowed down an area that is 10 kilometres by one kilometre on the ridge of Griffin Mountain. They say that someone had seen the plane near Mable Lake east of Enderby and there had been reports of two spot fires in that area. The region can’t be accessed by foot or vehicle, only by helicopter or drone.
“I know in my heart that my sister is alive,” Richard Bourgeault said. “The snow is deep. You walk out there and you’re just stuck in the snow.
“The bushes are thick. You can’t even walk past them, so it’s really hard to search on foot out there.”
Family members have said that they have run out of money to fund the search.
