Old News
June 2007
Thank-you Casino Volunteers !!
Every two years, we get a casino licence. A casino requires some 30 people to donate a 6- 8 hour day so we can raise some $35,000 - $40,000. We had more than enough people step forward to give us a hand and should know results of our effort in July.
Thank-you everyone who helped us out!
In the news: (It appears we made the local papers!!!!!)
Service clubs mobilize for Rocky View handibus
Rocky View Weekly June 5th
http://rockyviewweekly.awna.com/jun0507/story7.html
Organizations make commitment to handibus service
Airdrie Echo June 6
http://cgi.bowesonline.com/pedro.php?id=63&x=story&xid=313554
April 2007
Loss of a Friend
Long-time supporter, Ray Howden passed away this past weekend (April 22). Farmer, historian and genuine nice fellow, Ray helped a lot of folks in this region. We were particularly blessed by his generousity when he donated a bus to us in 1998. The "Howden Bus" has 340,000 km and has provided thousands of trips to folks in this region.
Thanks Ray!
Group Commits to "Three To Get Ready"
Our friends at Associated Canadian Travellers informed us that their group is going to commit to a $15,000 donation to our bus campaign. ACT was the anchor donor of our "Two For the Road" Campaign, believing in us before anyone else could.
March 2007
Our latest newsletter is here: marchnews
AGM
Our 2007 Annual General Meeting was on March 22:
2006 Report to Stakeholders
2006 Financial Statement
Feburary 2007
Chestermere Service
Chestermere Town Council recently approved support for a pilot project providing handibus service to Chestermere residents. Most of the the operating costs have been covered but more importantly, an actual physical bus is now required to be added to the fleet so that service can commence in Chestermere (see "off the road.
Donations can be made online or please contact Paul Siller at 403-948-2887
January 23 Article from the Rocky View Weekly See it Here (PDF)
January 2007
Off the Road!
In early December, bus #1 was rear-ended. No one was hurt but our insurance company has determined the bus was a write-off.
Bus #1, a 1996 GMC rally van, was bought second-hand (slightly used) in 1998 and modified to accommodate wheelchairs. With 10 years of age and over 430,000 km on the vehicle, the damage to the back doors and frame is not economic to repair. Unfortunately, the insurance value on this bus is only about 5% of the cost of a replacement.
Our "Two More For The Road-2007" capital campaign is now renamed the "Three to Get Ready-2007" campaign. The revised budget now sets a goal of $240,000 to put three new buses on the road this year. We'll be sending out some 40 funding proposals this month with the revised campaign goal. We intend to acquire the first bus as soon as funds permit. Encana and Rotary Club Calgary Olympic are already on board.
See the revised bus proposal here: Download 2007buscampaign.pdf
This is a significant fund-raising challenge for us. We certainly could use some help. If you have fund-raising insights, suggestions or recommendations, call Paul Siller (948-2887) or drop a line to: manager@rockyviewbus.ca
December 2006
Budget presentation
Rocky View Weekly covered our recent presentation to the Municipal District. Read it here
October 2006
New Office!
October 31 was the first day in our new shop. Our new location is in the Airdrie industrial area: 30 East Lake Hill (Hint: across the road from the recycling centre). For the first time in decades, we have our own place to bring a bus indoors for minor repairs.
All phone, internet and PO Box information will remain the same. However, we are going to have to ask for your patience over the next two weeks as we figure out things like: phone connections, internet hook-up or where we put the photocopier...
October Donations
Calpine Energy Centre, Zapata Energy Corporation, Zytech Building Systems and Airdrie's Knights of Columbus are all recent donors to our preschool transportation program. We are very pleased to have the support of community-minded neighbours such as these.
July 2006
Wild Rose Foundation Award
We received $49,588 - "Toward operational costs over two years, to meet the increased need and cost to provide rural accessible transportation in the rural Calgary region." These funds are the Foundations matching effort to our fundraising efforts of 2005 and will be used for some basic costs: rent, utilities and vehicle insurance. For more information on the Wild Rose Quarterly Grants program http://www.cd.gov.ab.ca/wrf
June 2006
Agricore United
When Balzac-area farmers from Agricore United's Rocky-View Crop Production Centre, donated $375 towards our handibus operations, there was a mis-communication from the staff at the Balzac RPC office. We arrived as a favour to Agricore staff but apparently, manager (and Balzac community icon) Grant Northcott was not of extreme age and did not actually need neither the wheelchair nor the handibus transportation requested for his recent birthday. We regret the misunderstanding and express our belated wishes for a happy birthday
 
Photos: Grant taking a short ride in a wheelchair and on our newest bus
May 2006
South Rock ROCKS!!!!
That's Ron Nolin (right) from South Rock Construction Employee Charitable Foundation handing over a cheque to our manager. This donation completes their three year pledge ($1000/yr) --- our first pledged donation. We were able to use South Rock's commitment to RVRH to approach other funders in the construction industry.
Thank-you South Rock employees, for your support!!
February 2006
February Newsletter
It's one page and it's available here: Feb 2006 newsletter
Notice of AGM:
Annual General Meeting March 23 2006 at:
Calgary Area Child/Family Services Boardroom:
209 Centre Ave W Airdrie
7:00 PM
Information: 948-2887
Driver Needed:
We need a new driver, preferrably on who lives Airdrie or Chestermere region: Driver job description
January 2006
Prosperity rebates
Have you been thinking about donating a bit of your prosperity bonus to a good cause? We know there are many good causes needing a hand but we'd also like to remind you that Rocky View Regional Handibus is a registered charity that fundraises for busses AND for operating funds. See our Donations page.
Our latest fund-raising goal is to get a kid (pre-schooler) to/from the Alberta Children's hospital as he attends daily physiotherapy after major orthopedic surgery (both legs). This child lives in a rural Calgary-area municipality that provides no support to handibus operations. We've committed the $3000 required to transport him for three months. Your donations would help.
...and if you would like to help us replace a bus... we can talk!
December 2005
December Newsletter
Once upon a time we made a promise to keep up a regular newsletter... Well, we are going to try it again!
dec2005news
The Rocky View Bus Blog!
We come across a lot of technical stuff that may be of interest to other special transportation providers. We've decided to use a blog to post these hints and ideas. Feel free to comment or to pass on technical/ policy information from your own experience. www.rockyviewbus.blogspot.com
Send your Blog articles to: blog@rockyviewbus.ca
November 2005
We found a Driver!!!
Thanks to all of you who helped us scour the countryside to find a suitable driver!! (She starts next week)
August 2005
Bert McLarty
Bert McLarty from our Board of Directors recently succumbed to cancer. One of his final requests was to direct donations in lieu of flowers to Rocky View Regional Handibus.
For information how to donate in memory of Bert, please click here
July 2005
Fundraising news
It took almost 24 months, but we found some generous funders to help us get two new vehicles on the road for this fall. Here is some local press coverage as the final donor, Nexen Energy, delivered their cheque at the Annual Balzac Community Stampede Breakfast (July 13). We owe many thanks to the participating groups: Associated Commercial Travellers Club of Calgary, Rotary Club of Calgary Olympic, Nickle Family Foundation and Nexen Energy Balzac Complex. We plan to post photos of the new bus soon. Article.
April 2005
Annual General Meeting: March 16 2005-- 25 Years!
We are going to brag! It is not often that you get media coverage at your AGM. We had coverage in both the Airdrie Echo and the Rocky View Weekly. See the articles:
Read the reports:
February 2005
Newsletter
It's one page. Find it here Newsfeb05.pdf
December 2004
Preschool Transportation Funding
What do Nexen Balzac Employees, TD Canada Trust, RBC Foundation, Childrens Hospital Aid Society, Burnco, Finnie Transport, South Rock, TransCanada and Compton Petroleum have in common?
All have donated to our preschooler transportation program for the Sept 2004 school year. We transport 8-9 special needs kids (preschoolers) to some of the best programs in Alberta. Unfortunately, the best programs are in Calgary. More unfortunately... no government is actually responsible to fund transportation for these kids. Because of these donors, our kids get the intervention that will help them keep up with their classmates once they enter the K-12 system.
If you like to help this program, see our Donations page.
December 2004
What's In Store?
Rocky View Accessible Transportation Discussion Paper
We would like to see transportation available to the entire MD of Rocky View. We've assembled a discussion paper for review by the public and government officials. This eight page PDF is available mdrvaccesstransportation2004.pdf
Your comments are welcome.
November 2004
Funding Drive
 This winter Rocky View Regional will undertake a public funding drive to raise funds and replace two buses. To make donations, easier we are encouraging our supporters to donate through Canadahelps.org . CanadaHelps.org
If you prefer to donate in person, we'll put the coffee on. See Donations for contact information.
Associated Commercial Travellers Donates $15,000
The commercial travellers have a long history of of community service across the prairies. The Calgary ACT chapter recently awarded us with $15,000 towards a new bus. This donation is to be matched with government or corporate funds. We are looking forward to using this donation as the kick-off to winter fund drive. Watch for announcements!
November 2003
Alberta Specialized Transportation Survey
We've circulated a letter to 35 Alberta small town and rural transportation organizations regarding a funding policy review presently conducted by Municipal Affairs (Survey Letter). We also asked transportation providers to complete a brief survey (25 questions). The survey results will be shared amongst the transportation groups and Alberta elceted officials. You can complete the survey online., or download and print the survey pdf (make sure to send it in).
See our results report
August 2004
Press Coverage
We have been remise in mentioning two significant articles that were in the press.
- Board Member, Jo Ann Miller recieves YWCA/ Global Television's Woman of Vision Award for her community work. PDF of article (NOTE: large file!!! 775kb)
- Manager, Paul Siller interviewed for a Calgary Herald Special Section for the Calgary Regional Partnership. www.calgary region.ca. The Calgary Regional Partnership has stepped up to carry forward our
effortsto assess rural/urban transportation issues through the small town rural Calgary Communities www.rockyviewbus.ca/ruti
May 2003
Nexen Donation
 Nexen Balzac Gas Plant is the first oil and gas facility in the world to be verified under petroleum industry's Responsible Care program.
This achievement (and a few others) helped the staff of the Balzac Complex win Nexen's President's Award, and a $15,000 donation to the charity of their choice. Thank-you Nexen!!
April 2003
Rural/Urban Transportation Issues
A group of stakeholders meeting about rural/urban transportation issues nominated our Transportation Manager, Paul Siller as interim chairman. The Rocky View Handibus board is very pleased to collaborate with this group. For more information on the
rural/ urban transportation issues go to the RUTI website.
March 2003
Annual Reports
March 19, 2003 was our Annual General Meeting. Aside from keeping the same board of directors, we were pleased to be able to present:
February 2003
Donate Online
With the assistance of CanadaHelps, we now have an online secure donations. You can use your credit card to make a donation. You can even make your donation anonymously (and Canadahelps will maintain your
confidentiality). Your tax receipt is e-mail immediately and the funds are transfered electronically to us. The standard credit card processing fees (2%) is the only amount deducted from your donation. Canadahelps meets all requirements of the Canadian
Centre for Philantrophy's Ethical Fund-raising code.Donate Here!
If you have any questions, please contact us 948-2887
July 2002
North East Rocky View Community Transportation Project
 The Calgary Foundation awarded us a $27,500 grant to develop a pilot
program for community transportation between Crossfield, Beiseker, Irricana, Airdrie and the interlaying regions of Rocky View. We will have project information available on our website in the coming months.
August 2002
Name Change
You've heard about it... Now it is happening! Handi Bus By C.R.A.B. Society is changing it's name to Rocky View Regional Handi Bus Society. Our new name provides a better reflection of our mission: accessible transportation in the Rocky
View region (and the communities therein). Stay tuned for a new logo and a new look to the website.
July 2002
North East Rocky View Community Transportation Project
The Calgary Foundation awarded us a $27,500 grant to develop a pilot program for community transportation between Crossfield, Beiseker, Irricana, Airdrie and the interlaying regions of Rocky View. We
will have project information available on our website in the coming months.
April 2002
If you live in Airdrie:
Effective April 1, 2002, Airdrie adult residents requiring accessible transportation within Airdrie or transportation to Calgary must call Airdrie Transit 948-9101, or visit their website (www.airdrie.com)
for forms and information regarding Airdrie service. Residents of all other municipalities/communities; call handi bus at 948-2887.
Email: info@rockyviewbus.ca
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