Heggie family donates land for new Raymond Stampede location – Lethbridge | 24CA News
The Raymond Stampede is a part of the city’s annual birthday celebrations, which simply so occur to even be Canada’s birthday. The rodeo attracts in individuals from everywhere in the area, together with Ron Heggie who has been a fan all his life.
“Rodeos been a part of my life for the years that I’ve lived and I can remember,” mentioned Heggie. “I was only seven-years-old when that grandstand behind us was built.”
The annual stampede made such an affect he determined to donate roughly 14 acres to make sure Raymond’s wealthy rodeo historical past lives on.
“I want the tradition to continue. I don’t want to see it end.”
The present location was donated a long time in the past by one other native household, however Mayor Jim Depew mentioned the location is now wanted to develop the communities highschool.
“We are growing and we have to look at the concerns of everybody and some of the concerns are for a new school, so that’s why we have to move the rodeo grounds,” mentioned Depew. He added the donation from the Heggie household is big for the neighborhood and helped determine the place to construct the brand new grounds.
Heggie mentioned it’s taken time to work out an settlement with the city, however his household is worked up in regards to the resolution.
“I want to see the land used for nothing but recreational purposes. I don’t want to see somebody come in and take a hold of it and use it for profit of something like that,” he mentioned.
Read extra:
Rounding up 111 years of custom in Raymond
Raymond Stampede Society president Robert Heggie — Ron’s nephew — mentioned the rodeo group fought arduous to maintain the present spot the place it’s been since 1903, however now with a brand new location secured it’s time to maneuver ahead and volunteers can be wanted to assist with the relocation.
“Its funny how history sort of repeats itself and we are going to go through it all again and give this generation the opportunity to step it up and be pioneers of our time to get this going again,” mentioned Robert.
The ultimate showdown on the previous grounds can be on its common day of July 1, then the chutes will crack for the stampede at its new location in 2024.
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
