A big night in High River Saturday as the Hospital Foundation held it's annual gala at the Highwood Memorial Centre.

During the gala, the Foundation board awarded the Clifford and Louise Lougheed Award for Philanthropy to the staff and owners at Chinook Feeders.

In the 1990s they and other local feedlots would keep and feed cattle with money or even feed that was donated to them and after the cattle were sold the money would go to the Hospital Foundation.

Deb Eld with Chinook Feeders says they started out as a part of the Cattle and Grain Round-Up in the 1990s, but since then they've contributed though the money they save on insurance each year.

"We actually have a reduced insurance rate from the government because our employees are covered 24 hours a day on our insurance plan, so instead of the company paying 1.4 times for insurance, we may pay 1.2 times," she says. "The savings that we get from that every year that we don't pay the government, of those savings, 5/12 of that has to go back to the employees, but a number of years ago the employees signed a thing saying we could contribute to the charity of our choice, and the charity of our choice has always been the Cattle and the Grain Round-Up."

Eld admits agriculture can be a dangerous occupation and having a facility like the High River Hospital is immeasurable.

"Needless to say, a feedlot, we have used their resources a lot, a couple times a year a couple of guys end up in emergency, we're thankful nothing total serious, but we use their resources for sure," Eld says.

Other past winners have included the Lions Club, Rotary Club and Snodgrass Funeral Home.

Clifford and Louise Lougheed's bequest to the Health Care Foundation has grown to close to $1 million in the years since it was received.

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