Servus Credit Union serves up 15 dozen hot dogs and a fun, free time at Eastlink Park

Servus Credit Union Whitecourt teamed up with Eastlink Park to offer a free day of skiing, snowboarding, and tubing on Friday, March 2. From 4 to 8 p.m., members from Servus cooked up 15 dozen hot dogs and passed out green glow sticks as daylight faded.

“This is part of Servus Credit Union’s global purpose and part of that is bringing financial fitness to our communities. We want to be able to give back and to give the opportunity for the community to come up and enjoy Eastlink for free. I know it’s expensive to live these days so anytime we can help with the pocket book definitely makes us feel better,” said Whitecourt Servus branch manager Dave Arcand.

Even with blizzard-like conditions which included strong winds, around 100 people took advantage of the chance to save some money while having fun. Different Servus branches in the province have held similar events at local ski hills including one in Grande Prairie on the same night. “We’re getting a lot of trial and error off the other events taking place,” said Dave. He added that he hopes to do more free events in the future, potentially even another this year.

Johnathan Gibbins, 10, was at Eastlink Park just the day before with his Central School classmates and tried on skis for the first time. He also received guidance from park instructors and enjoyed it so much that he came back the very next day for the Free Friday from Servus. “Yesterday was the first time I had ever skied, and it was awesome. The instructors were really good and showed me how to ski.” When asked his favourite part about hanging out at Eastlink Park, the new skier said it was getting to fly. “Going down the hill at high speed is the best.”

On the financial side of things, Dave hopes that saving money to play for free will bring attention to saving at home. “We don’t see enough savings accounts. I get it, it’s tough to live and it’s tough to be able to afford things even with two people working jobs but if you can put even a little bit away then, month after month, you’ll see it start to grow. That’s what we need to see more of. It’s easy to lend out money but saving money and getting ready for retirement, that’s where we have the gap.”

Dave encourages anyone with questions to make an appointment with one of their financial advisors. Local information can be found on servus.ca. “I want to thank Merv Hilland and his crew here at Eastlink Park for their wonderful partnership. They’ve been great through all of this and we hope that everyone had lots of fun.”