For the second year in a row, La Ronge was one of the stops on the Hope Air Prairie Expedition that travelled through B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.
Of the eight planes on the expedition, five landed in La Ronge on Wed, June 26 for a Meet-and-greet event at the La Ronge Airport.
The Expedition has a two-fold purpose, to raise fund for the organization and to make people aware of what Hope Air offers.
Hope Air is a non-profit organization, based in British Columbia, that offers air travel for people in remote areas needing to travel for medical appointments in the city.
Hope Air not only offers the air travel, but does all the arranging, including making accommodation and in-town travel arrangements as well, Doug McNair, the Prairie Expedition Captain, said, in an interview with the Northern Advocate.
There were planes from British Columbia, Regina, Regina-Milestone, southern Ontario, another from Regina and one from Lethbridge, Alta. took part in the Expedition.
“There were up to eight planes that were involved in this year’s flight” and they made it to all points with the exception of Peace River, Alta., which they had to miss because of weather conditions, McNair said.
The group left La Ronge for their final destination, a Grand Finale in Regina, to celebrate their success.
Donations and numbers of users are up considerably in the past, and the British Columbia government has written Hope Air into its ten-year cancer plan, McNair said. Anyone can connect with Hope Air online at info@hopeair.ca, by phone at Toll Free: 1-877-346-4673 or 416-222-6993-ext 1. Hope Air is open Monday to Friday 9 am to 7:30 p.m. daily Eastern time and 6 a.m. to 4:30 Pacific time. They are closed Saturday and Sunday.
