The feel-good opportunities that arise with community involvement are a benefit of being part of an organization. Snowmobile clubs are no different; many of them are doing their part to better their localities.
The Pembina Drift Busters, in Westlock, have been supporting the Adopt-a-Family program for a number of years, giving needy families food and toys. Cliff Bromberger, a member of the Drift Busters and the local Alberta Snowmobile Association representative, said that the club has found much success with the program and have heard much positive feedback from the townspeople.
“We do it every year,” said Bromberger. “We go to Family and Community Support Services (FCSS), and we’re given a family. They don’t give us names or anything along that line, but we’re given a single parent family as well as the number of kids, their ages and their first names. From that point on, we buy food and gifts for each of the kids, as well as the parent, too. We then turn it back to FCSS and it is distributed to the family.”
Bromber said that the Drift Busters have been supporting community initiatives for many years, initially through their involvement with Coats for Kids. However, during a year when there was a surplus of coats, but the Drift Busters still wanted to support a charity.
“We never get to know who the family are but we’ve always had good reviews from the public,” he said.
The Drift Busters hold some fundraising efforts during the year, such as poker rallies, but Bromberger said that a core group of members also donate money and goods.
“This year the core group itself donated enough toys that we hardly had to buy any,” he said.
When the snow melts, Bromberger said the clubs remains active through the year, running the gates at car shows in the summer.
Bromberger himself has been a club member for about a decade, and originally acted as a club historian.
“I’ve decided to take a step up and I’m in the ASA role, which I enjoy,” he said.
