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Photo: Gordon Frentz
By Shane Clausing
$104,000 raised

2021 Northern Spirit Light Show raises nearly $104,000 for local organizations

Mar 3, 2022 | 12:14 PM

The Peace Draft Horse Club (PDHC) says the 2021 edition of the Northern Spirit Light Show was able to raise over $104,000 for local organizations and charities throughout the Peace Region.

“This year after all the bills were paid and everything was taken care of, we were able to give back just about $104,000 to the community,” said President Jody White. “We’ve got the Beaverlodge Boys and Girls Club, GP Victim Services Unit, Helping Hands, STARS and 25 different schools in the area (receiving donations).”

This year’s edition of the show was downsized once again because of COVID-19 restrictions. This meant people were asked to experience the show inside their vehicles and the horse rides and hot chocolate were not available.

While it was disappointing they were unable to host their normal show this year, White says by not having the traditional horse rides or hot chocolate stands they were actually able to donate more money to charity.

The Northern Spirit Light Show also accepted food bank donations from the community as people drove their vehicles into Evergreen Park when attending the show.

While they did not have a specific number for how much food was donated, White tells EverythingGP it was an overwhelming amount.

“There was a lot of nights where it was full pickup trucks heading out to the food bank. Some nights you would have 50 pounds of food and other nights you’d have 500 pounds,” he stated. “It wouldn’t surprise me if we were able to raise a couple thousand pounds to area food banks.”

White adds the success has led the PDHC to renew their contract with Evergreen Park to keep the light show there for another five years.

He’s hopeful that next year’s show will be a return back to normal operations for them.

“We’re going to try really hard to have our horses and wagons back for next year,” White said.

“Fingers crossed everything works out and we can do that. We feel that we kind of owe it to our community to get those back, up and going.”

This was the 13th year of the Northern Spirit Light Show.

White adds over the last 13 years, they have been able to raise over $500,000 for the community.

“One thing in our AGM that came through is in 13 years of doing this we’ve been able to give over $500,000 back into the community. Just about every eye was getting misty at the AGM when we heard that news. Pretty proud moments for us that we are able to do this and we couldn’t do it without the people from this area coming to see us.”

by Shane Clausing