Update: April 25th, 2018, 11:30am.

The fundraising total has now been released, and it’s over $35,000.

“The community support was stupendous in every way, between donations, offers of service from volunteers and a truly heart-warming community turnout at the game,” says Superintendent Ken Foster of the Red Deer RCMP. “Among our own members and among the public, we kept hearing that people felt the need to help in some way. This event gave people the opportunity to take action and send that message from Red Deer to Humboldt that we stand with them in their pain.”

“As a new comer to the Community, I am overwhelmed by the support that this City gave. I was equally impressed by the degree of professionalism and pride that all the players showed throughout the event”, says Chief Ken McMullen, Emergency Services Manager.  “What may not be as well known, was the fact that this all came together in a matter of days and for that we need to thank and recognize the volunteers from both services that put a tremendous amount of effort forward to ensure the event’s success.”  

RCMP and RDES thank the community for their support, and will publish a full list of event sponsors soon. All funds raised will go to the victims and families impacted by the tragic collision. Superintendent Foster would also like to extend his thanks to Constable Kyle Smeltzer, Constable Greg Douglas, Kevin Stelmaschuk and Mark Stadnick and for their work in proposing and organizing this charity game.

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Earlier story from April 21st, 2018.

The charity hockey game between Red Deer’s RCMP and Emergency Services on Friday night saw hundreds fill the stands at Servus Arena to raise money for those affected by the fatal Humboldt Broncos bus crash.

Proceeds came from a barbeque in the parking lot, admission donations, silent auction and 50-50 tickets.

“It’s awesome. We didn’t have a clue what to expect, to be honest. We started with an idea last week and it’s turned into something big where the whole community’s involved so it’s amazing. I couldn’t be happier,” said Const. Greg Douglas, an RCMP member that laced up for game.

The idea for the “Battle of the Badges” came from a few RCMP members with connections to Humboldt. They reached out to the fire department asking if they’d want to participate. It didn’t take long for the event to materialize.

“They approached us about it and we jumped on it, thought it was fantastic,” said Rory Merkosky, a first-class firefighter who grew up on a farm 15 minutes away from Humboldt.

“The Red Deer community and central Alberta’s been amazing to support my hometown, the victims’ families and everybody back home who’s really hurting.”

Innisfail Eagles head coach Brian Sutter was behind the Emergency Services bench. Red Deer Rebels head coach Brent Sutter was on the RCMP side.

In addition to fundraising, the game was also a show of solidarity for emergency service personnel that responded to the crash that killed 16 and injured many others.

According to Merkosky, members of the Saskatoon fire department has reached out to first responders in Humboldt, and says critical incident stress management teams have been deployed to the Tisdale volunteer fire department to help them manage their mental health in the aftermath.

He hopes those who are struggling reach out for help.

“Just lean on each other, talk about things,” he said. “There’s no strength in keeping stuff to yourself. The strength comes in facing any sort of issues that boil up over time, and being there for each other and listening and approaching it head on instead of pushing it away.”