Haying in the 30’s Society donates over $450,000 to cancer victims in 2018

The Haying in the 30’s parade that kicks off the weekend event in 2017.

One of the most charitable organizations in the lakeland had another successful year in 2018.

The Haying in the 30’s Cancer Support Society in Mallaig announced that in 2018 they helped 477 families and donated $452,900.

Since Edgar Corbiere began the society twenty years ago, 2018 was the second largest amount of cancer victims they’ve ever helped, only bested in 2009.

Their annual agricultural weekend in August, also called Haying in the 30’s, drew just over $250,000 in donations alone from the 4,500 who attended.

President Martin Naundorf said the board gets a lot of applications from those touched by cancer.

“Cancer is like an epidemic. In December we had 96 applications and that’s just for one month. And we can’t afford to pay them all, we have a budget we have to work on,” said Naundorf.

“Usually what we do is do the lakeland first. And then if there’s money available we go outside the lakeland. We just don’t have the kind of money…we get applications from all across Canada. There’s no way we can afford to pay everybody, and the organization was started in the lakeland. That’s where we get the most revenue from,” he said.

Depending on the year and the number of applications, the society has given to families across Alberta and Canada. On a couple rare occasions, they were able to give to cancer victims in the United States, and even New Zealand.

“I mean we try help people from all over. Sometimes we don’t get that many applications so we’re able to. When we get loaded down then we do the lakeland,” said Naundorf.

The society gives $1,000 to each victim and meets monthly to go through applications and divvy out the requests.

Naundorf reads each application they receive and the messages from families they’ve helped.

“I get a lot of thank-you emails. We get a lot of cards by mail. People are very appreciative. Some are detailed, some aren’t. It’s a big help. There’s a lot of people who need money. We get a lot of applications for kids. The brain tumour thing seems to be a big issue now for kids.”

Naundorf became involved with Haying in the 30’s six years ago after his family was helped by their financial assistance.

“When I first got involved I just went to help out and stuff. Next thing I knew I was on the board, and then the next thing I know I was President…but I enjoy it. I’m pretty much semi-retired so I have a lot of time to work on it. And it’s getting to be a bigger job every year. The organization is getting bigger,” he said.

In total, Naundorf says there are about 350 members, 14 board members, and nearly 300 volunteers to help with their weekend event.

The organization gets larger and the community involvement continues year round.

“We’ve got some big donations coming in. I have to go next week to Wolf Lake CNRL, they’re giving us $20,000. Bonnyville Figure Skating gave us $4,000. It comes in from across the northeast.”

Haying in the 30’s celebrated their twenty-year anniversary in 2018.

In total, they’ve donated to 5,268 victims.