I don’t know if it feels longer or shorter than 10 years for parishioners of St. Gabriel the Archangel Parish but that’s how long it’s been since mass has been celebrated in Chestermere, in the gymnasium of St. Gabriel the Archangel School. I’m sure though that they would all agree, the desire to build a church is rapidly growing.
Rev. John Nemanic is the Pastor at St. Gabriel the Archangel Parish and he has been actively involved in a unique fundraising adventure called Angels on High (AOH) designed to build Chestermere’s first Catholic Church building.
The 3rd Annual Angels on High consists of two main parts; a fundraising dinner & dance and an exciting mountain scramble. The fundraising dinner will be held on Saturday June 6, 2015 at the Chestermere Rec Centre. With former NHLer Charlie Simmer as the events emcee and Fr. Fred Monk as the keynote speaker the evening will certainly be a lot of fun complete with a silent auction and raffles.
Tickets to the Angels on High dinner are only $70 each and selling out fast. The dance is a new piece to this year’s event and organizers are looking forward to the chance for attendees to enjoy the music and dancing once the evening’s official program is over. Free babysitting is also provided upstairs from the dinner, courtesy of the St. Gabriel Youth Group called the “J-Walkers”.
Tickets for two great raffles are also available for purchase. The “Wellness Raffle” offers the chance to win a $5,999 Full Body Robotic Massage Chair, generously donated by BODO Wellness Technology. The second raffle titled the “Recreation Raffle” has three awesome prizes including a two week vacation in Mexico; a wine lover’s dream of 50 unique bottles of wine and a Beer Mountain, consisting of 15 cases of beer – all perfect for the upcoming summer season.
AOH has partnered with NEC’s Liquor in Chestermere to support the recreation raffle. Pat Milligan, the manager of Nec’s Liquor Store in Chestermere has generously offered to assist in obtaining some of the 50 bottles of wine for the raffle prize by having an AOH display in the store and offering their customers a 20% discount off any bottle of wine purchased at NEC’s Liquor and donated to AOH. “We feel it’s a good investment in the community to build a church and it is also a nice way we can support each other” says Milligan. You can visit the store at 320 W. Creek Drive for more information.
The mountain scramble is the second and main part that makes up Angels on High. This year, 31 faith filled volunteer from Chestermere and area will ascend Castle Mountain on Saturday, August 8 2015. As in the previous two years, many of these inspiring volunteers have no experience hiking or scrambling and all of them will spend months training to prepare for this momentous journey.
In fact, this past Sunday the Angels on High Climbers invited the community to join them on their first official training hike up Prairie View Mountain in Kananaskis and over 40 people joined them. In addition to that they will go on at least four more training hikes, they will walk and run around Chestermere Lake dozens of times, and everyone’s favorite: they will run up and down the old wooden stairs at McHugh Bluffs on Memorial Trail hundreds of times each between now and August.
The amount of training is not easy because Castle Mountain is a demanding hike, especially when you are not an avid mountaineer. Halfway between Banff and Lake Louise, Castle Mountain is in the eastern most mountain range in Bow Valley. It is one of the most outstanding and most photographed mountains on the Trans-Canada Highway.
To reach this beauties summit, the climbers must hike 28kms round trip and will gain 1,400 meters elevation. The trip will take approximately 12 hours to complete, baring no extreme weather like snow, rain, thunder and the most dangerous… lightning.
While providing in all this energy and support to Angels on High, they will be collecting pledges for their inspiring efforts from family and friends, neighbours and coworkers, community members and business owners. To make a pledge toward your favorite climber you may visit the pledge table at mass any weekend between now and August.
Mass is held at St. Gabriel the Archangel School on 197 Invermere Drive every weekend on Saturday at 5:00pm as well as Sunday at 9:00am and 10:30am.
“Not only will a church building enable us to heed the first of the great commandments of Jesus: a place to love our God and draw deeper into what the call to love God means by learning more about our faith; but it is also an extension of the second great commandment of Jesus to love our neighbor as ourselves” says Rev. Nemanic.
Please visit www.angelsonhigh.ca for more information or call the office at (403)455-0196 to purchase dinner and/or raffle tickets.
