SECURE Celebrates Record-Breaking Stampede Charity Party

On Wednesday, July 12, SECURE hosted it's ninth annual Charity Stampede Party, supporting three different charities including, Ronald McDonald House Charities, Providence, and the Canadian Red Cross in support of both the Alberta Wildfires and Ukraine. 

Since the birth of this annual party, we've seen wildfires, economic downturns, and a global pandemic. Despite this, we've found ways to continue the event – especially through the pandemic when we were forced to brainstorm ways to continue to support our communities.

Over the past nine years, our goal has stayed the same; to provide support and resources for our city, province, and around the world. Not only that, in our competitive spirit, SECURE always aims to blow our donation total from the previous year out of the water. 

While we've been known to host this party each year at the National on 8^th rooftop, our luck with good weather had officially run out. With the trail of storms making way through Calgary during Stampede, the party was officially moved, indoors, to the Palace Theatre. The last-minute change didn't stop the party – guests had more room to two-step on the official dancefloor of this historic building. 

The day began with a live auction led by Rene Amirault, CEO, and Cody Snyder, Championship Bull Rider. 

In 1983, Cody Snyder made history by becoming the first Canadian to be crowned the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association's World Champion Bull Rider and is the first Canadian to be inducted into the Bull Riding Hall of Fame. Cody Snyder Bullbustin’ Inc. is now one of North America’s premier bull riding event organizations, featuring athletes from across the world.

Rene and Cody had the crowd going throughout the live auction with the goal of pushing us over our fundraising goal.

For the grand prize, Cody kindly donated signed Bullustin' riding jerseys along with several other goodies for one lucky winner. 

While the focus of this annual event has always been around Charity, it's also always had an additional focus around music – specifically Canadian music legends. Over the years we've danced to Tom Cochrane, Colin James, and Trooper.

This year, SECURE was joined on the big stage by the Jim Cuddy Trio.

Jim Cuddy, Anne Lindsay, and Colin Cripps captured the audience with some Blue Rodeo Classics. With a 10-minute rendition of Blue Rodeo's 5 Days in May, including a violin and guitar solo, the Canadian roots rock band had the entire building either dancing or mesmerized. With a setting like the Palace Theatre, playing to over 900 people, the day felt even more grand.

Finally, we're proud to announce that this years' event was another record-breaker for donations. 

SECURE raised over $647,000 for our three partner charities. Since this annual event began, SECURE has raised over $3.2 million for charity. 

We'd like to thank our generous sponsors and everyone who attended for helping us reach this goal, including: