Chairs for Charity will be returning to Lacombe this year. The event that is hosted by Nowco Home Hardware had to be cancelled last year due to the pandemic but the business looks forward to putting it on for the third time this year in time for Lacombe Days.

“We ask businesses downtown to purchase a child sized adirondack chair from us at our costs and then decorate it however they wish. Then, we sell raffle tickets for the chairs during the coming days,” explained Deanna Nowochin, Office Manager of Nowco Home Hardware.

In the past, the fundraiser has provided a bit of extra funding for non-profits in the city.

“The first year our charity was the lunch program at J.S McCormick School and we raised just over $3,100 for them. That was exciting for us for our first year. Then in 2019, we actually doubled the amount of businesses involved and we doubled the money we raised. In 2019, we had 76 businesses participate and we raised $6,200. That year, we actually split the raffle proceeds between Lacombe Minor Football and the lunch program at Terrace Ridge School,” explained Nowochin.

She says this year’s charity has not totally bewn finalized but she has a fundraising goal of $10,000 which was the also the goal for 2019.

Businesses have the opportunity to decorate, paint, and individualize the chair in any way they want. This year, the Nowco Home Hardware is offering a special deal to businesses who want to participate this year and in the years to come.

“We were blessed enough to not be shut down due to COVID. We've actually committed this year to covering half the cost of the chair for participating businesses with their commitments that will be back next year. We knew that this year wasn't as easy for everyone else. We really want to get the momentum back that we had in 2019 and this is our way of doing it. We're really excited to be able to offer that to everyone,” explained Nowochin.

They are asking that all businesses are committed to Chairs for Charity by April 1st and that those chairs are complete and ready for delivery by mid-June. The chairs will be on display from July 20th to August 1st.

Overall, the event has been pretty popular in the past and Nowochin looks forward to once again giving the opportunity for local businesses to participate.

“It’s like a win-win scenario. You get to do something great for your community and you also get to maybe provide a team building thing for your staff. It’s also obviously provides really great social media content because everybody really likes following along with the progress of their chairs and what their scene might be. It's pretty great and it's a pretty fun event,” added Nowochin.