Meat draws pay off for refugees and hungry

Meat draws held weekly at Haney Motor Hotel will go a long ways towards helping Ukraine refugees and the hungry in Maple Ridge.

A local service club was able to present $5,000 to the Friends in Need Food Bank recently. And similarly, another $5,000 will go to the Maple Ridge Ukrainian Society to aid five families settling in the community, explained club secretary Roy Button.

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The Maple Ridge Lions Club’s primary fundraiser is a meat draw held on Fridays and Saturdays – through much of the year – at The Haney.

Button explained that on Fridays, there are three draws, first at 5:30, second at 6:30, the last at 7 p.m. Then, Saturdays the draws start earlier at 4:30 p.m., with subsequent draws at the same intervals.

“The club usually has no meetings or events during July and August. This means no meat draws. However, historically, the food bank has taken over the summer months and the fundraiser returns to us in September,” Button said.

He’s still waiting for confirmation if the food bank is taking over during the summer months.

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“I would like to emphasize that the monies raised goes to members of our community first; then we will consider ‘asks’ from others,” he noted.

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