Valour Place, the facility that houses soldiers and police officers that need medical services in Edmonton, held its fifth annual fundraising walk Sunday.
The 12-room facility with a common kitchen area offers free accommodations and food. The walks and other fundraisers have raised more than $5 million for the facility’s endowment fund since it opened in 2012, and donations are its only source of income.
The target was to raise $50,000 at Sunday’s walk, and in the future, to get to $8 million in the fund.
“To run a 10,000 square foot home like we do, it costs over $500,000 a year, and that includes all of our utilities and everything else,” Lydia Migus, Valour Place’s executive director, told CTV News.
There were five and 10-kilometre walks and a 13-kilometre walks for soldiers.
A home away from home
Captain Gerald Fillatre knows first-hand the importance of Valour Place. He stayed there for almost a month three years ago when his son was born six weeks prematurely.
Fillatre and his wife flew down from Yellowknife to a city where they have no family, but Valour Place felt like home during a difficult time.
“Having some people go through the same circumstances as you, it’s easier to be able to sit and talk to,” he said. “I wouldn’t sit and talk to a stranger in a hotel but here it’s people in the same circumstances so it’s to get familiar with other people and share stories.
“It’s a lot more home like and during a stressful time; it’s a nice place to be.”
With files from Nahreman Issa
