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Riders saddle up for annual STARS air ambulance fundraiser

RUMSEY RECORD -- The sunshine is working its magic and slowly drying out the fields so the farmers can get into them.

RUMSEY RECORD -- The sunshine is working its magic and slowly drying out the fields so the farmers can get into them and get the haying and silaging done. Good luck and be safe on the equipment, everyone.

I would like to apologize to Judy and Jim Nelson. Judy came in two week ago with news of their European cruise and I promised to get it into the column, but we were gone camping so I submitted my column using my memory and my phone technology. Well, the phone worked better than my memory so you might have noticed how brief the column was last week.

This week I am safely at home with my PC so should be able to remember everything. Judy reported that the cruise was wonderful and very memorable. They saw a lot of remarkable things as they traveled. Towards the end of their journey, they stopped in Holland and with the connections of friends in Holland they were able to visit the Royal FloraHolland Auction.

This amazing place, the size of 220 football fields, supplies flowers to the world everyday. It is an auction house that deals specifically with flowers and plants. They sell 12.5 billion flowers and plants annually; their top sellers are 3.7 billion roses, 1.7 billion tulips, 117 million phalaenopsis, 77 million kalanchoe, 20 million hydrangea. There are 34.5 million flowers going out the door every day. The flowers and plants are shipped in through out the night, the auction starts at 7 a.m. and runs to 11 a.m., during which time the viewing balcony is open to visitors so you can observe the mayhem. The afternoon is spent shipping the flowers all over the world. Everything happens at a frantic pace to maintain freshness at all times. Their top five export countries are Germany, Britian, France, Italy and Russia. The five top countries they import from are Kenya, Ethiopia, Israel, Belgium and Germany. There are more than 100,000 transactions every day. This truly sounds phenomenal.

The S.T.A.R.S Ride concluded with another successful year under their belts. Well done to all the volunteers who work hard on this every year. Joann Richmond reported that the rough total of yesterday's pledges and fundraising efforts were more than $40,000. The supper and silent auction hadn't been tallied yet.

There were $36,000 in pledges alone, Joann noted. There were 102 riders for the day, with the oldest rider being 88-years-old. Thank you to Marvin Donaghy for participating! The youngest rider was Chesney Andersen, who was only four-years-old. May you both enjoy many more years on the ride.

The top pledge collectors were: Lynne Tanner who brought in $9,330, Ernie Goddard with $5,900, and Nikki Hiron who collected $4,415. In the junior pledges, Rylee Jones brought $2,201, Tenial Hunt came with $2,020 and Meah Richmond brought $1,475 to the table. Thank you to all of the riders for your efforts to raise money for such a worthy cause. The raffle was once again a big hit with the prizes going to Tayler Hiron, who won the quilt made by Joann Richmond, Rob Richmond, who won the Frieson Gift Cards, Logan Duncan, who will be enjoying the Alberta Prairie Steam Train Tickets, Peter These, who will cash in on the Grouches Shopping Spee, Dariel McNaughton will get to enjoy a Pencil sketch of John Wayne by Lee Caweizel and Jim Gardner will enjoy a $100 gift card from Central Alberta Co-Op. Thank you to all the donors and to all who entered the raffle.

The Rumsey Ag Society still have a few spots left to fill for their casino dates on Aug. 24 and 25, so please contact them ASAP and put your name down. It is the easiest fundraiser you will ever volunteer for and it raises so much money for the Ag Society. I have worked at many of them and I will be going again as it is the simplest thing you can do with the greatest return for your effort.

Lastly, the Verdant Valley Draft Horse competition is on this weekend starting at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 13. It will be held at the Verdant Valley Community Centre 15 km east of Drumheller on Highway 576. This is a chance to see some real power at work as those horse charge around the field. It is free admission to the grounds with a beef on a bun supper for $15 a plate. Check it out.

I found this joke particularly funny because in our world of pointing out the obvious, I think that we tend to get a little carried away. If you have ever noticed that on the ingredients list of a jug of milk, the manufacturer has pointed out that this product contains milk. Really?!

I swear, the other day I bought a packet of peanuts, and on the packet it said "may contain nuts." Well, YES! That's what I bought the package for! You'd be annoyed if you opened it and a socket set fell out!

Have a great week.