The 3rd annual Rally 4 Hospice took place on Saturday September 12th and was largely a success in spite of COVID.

The fundraiser event sees registrants driving all around the Foothills, searching for clues in a scavenger hunt, followed by a dinner and auction.

Stephanie Barnes, Development and Communications Officer with the Foothills Country Hospice, says this year's turnout was the best yet.

"We had 92 cars registered this year, so we doubled our cars. We were actually turning people away because we had to keep our numbers under 200 [people] due to COVID regulations so we were turning cars away. I think we could've had more than 100 cars this year."

Though a large dinner even was originally planned to follow the rally, plans changed following the pandemic.

Luckily, the High River Sunset Drive-In stepped in to provide a safe after-party that left guests smiling.

Barnes says the rally itself didn't have to be altered very much.

"The checkpoints were a little different this year because we couldn't do as many interactive challenges as we had done in the previous years because of COVID, they were more sort of 'use your eye' scavenger hunt style questions, but everyone thought it was a lot of fun."

The total amount of money raised at the event is still being added up, though Barnes says the hospice was able to surpass its goal.

"Our goal going into the rally this year, because of COVID, the economic downturn and the fact that we had to cap the capacity, we were hoping to exceed $100,000, and we definitely did that. I wanna say we're at least over $150,000, probably higher than that as well."

Several awards were given out to participants, including "Best Costume," "Oldest Vehicle," and the "Broken Gear" award, given to a red Ferrari that broke down on the hospice driveway.

For more information on this year's rally, including the list of awards, click here.

 

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