It was an idea that resulted in two large donations to the Salvation Army from the Kinistin Saulteaux Nation.
“Our bison manager approached us with the idea of having a raffle, with the prize being a bison hunt,” said Cecil Thomas, Kinistin’s lands manager.
The winner would be able to hunt down one of the bison out in the field and keep the head, hide and half the meat.
The raffle began Feb. 1 and lasted until the third week of March. The winner was then drawn March 24 from among 451 tickets, with the hunt happening two weeks later.
With the proceeds, Kinistin gave two donations to the Salvation Army: one worth $902 and one worth $1,233.08.
“The winner – his name was Joe Musty – he ended up donating half of his meat back to the community, so he only took a quarter of the meat, the head and the hide,” said Rina Lafond, Kinistin’s lands clerk.
Lafond said they chose the Salvation Army because they wanted to give back.
“Our members in the community, the lower income families, use access to the food bank here in town, as well as the Melfort one, and we just wanted to give back, to have the support come back to those who support us through the food bank.”
Cpt. Jennifer Robins of the Salvation Army, said the hunt was a creative, excellent idea.
“We feel honoured that the Kinistin nation would organize something,” she said. “It sounds like it was a lot of work and it took a lot of moving pieces to get it all organized, but they pulled it off and it was really successful.”
Sheri Fengstad, the Tisdale and Nipawin Food Bank co-ordinator, agreed.
“It’s just fantastic that they thought of us to give back to us so that we can continue to do what we do and help people in the community, which we can’t do without people partnering with us.”
Fengstad said the food bank gets lots of attention during Christmas, but that interest drops off around this time.
“This time of year is when we’re kind of running out and this time of year people don’t always think to donate as much,” she said. “The need definitely doesn’t go away.”
Thomas and Lafond said they hadn’t decided if they would repeat the raffle next year.
Lafond added the Nation market their bison at the DaMar service stop at the corner of Highways #3, #6 and #41 in Melfort.
