Wanda Edwards, vice-president of CUPE Local 5999, and Sarah Demarchi, a continuing care aide at Tatagwa View, look over some of the over 100 grad dresses and formal gowns that CUPE has collected at the Local 5999 office to be taken up to Edmonton, for use by grads in Fort McMurray. CUPE put the word out for donations of grad dresses and suits, and over 100 were collected by Friday, when they were all loaded up into a trailer and driven up to Edmonton to an evacuation centre, eventually to be given to grads from high schools in Fort McMurray. The Northern Alberta city was devastated by wildfires, forcing the evacuation of the entire city of 88,000 people, with around 2,400 structures destroyed by the wildfires. The donations have also included shoes, clutches, jewelry and other accessories for grads, and even a couple of wedding dresses, and nine brand new dresses donated from a dress shop in Big Beaver.
