Lethbridge Family Services is hosting its first-ever signature fundraising benefit gala Spring to Light Apr. 25 with special guest Rick Mercer.
LFS is raising funds to support mental health and wellness programming delivered in two of the local organization’s departments – Immigrant Services and DaCapo Disability Services.
Rick Mercer chronicles, satirizes and ultimately celebrates all that is great and irreverent about Canada.
Mercer is a national number one bestselling author, hosted The Mercer Report on CBC Television and was featured on This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
Mercer remembers being in Lethbridge previously while filming a segment for The Mercer Report. “I shot at the University of Lethbridge with the track and field team. I was throwing like shot put, the hammer throw and all the heavy things you can throw. The javelin, I seem to remember doing. That was a little while ago. Maybe that was the last time I was there,” he notes.
Mercer has written a number of memoirs since The Mercer Report wrapped up, as he draws on stories about travelling around the country when he visits communities across Canada.
“It’s a pretty unique perspective on Canada. Although, I think it’s one many entertainers have if you spend literally most of your professional life on the road. I certainly did planes, trains and automobiles to every part of the country more than once. I talk about those travels,” Mercer notes.
While Mercer was working on his TV show, in the back of his mind, he always hoped he could define what it meant to be Canadian. “Which is interesting because that seems to be more relevant now than ever before.”
“It’s kind of my quest to answer that question, what does it mean to be a Canadian?”
Mercer adds he continues to travel these days and is happy to go anywhere. “I’m good at travelling, but I certainly don’t travel the way I used to. When I was doing The Mercer Report, there were weeks where we would have 12 takeoffs and landings.”
There was one week inside a seven-day period, Mercer says, where the team visited three oceans inside of seven days. “It was a travel schedule that was unrelenting.”
“That’s part of the reason I wrapped the show up when I did, but it was an incredible gift. Canada is such a big country. It’s so hard to travel in Canada and expensive. I think right now, Canadians are looking at travelling inside of Canada more than ever before. There’s no such thing as a family in Alberta that would not like to take their kids and drive around the Maritimes on a holiday. It’s just really hard to do and expensive. There’s no such thing as someone from Ontario who want to take their kids to see the Rockies. It’s just really expensive, so if you’ve travelled non-stop for your job, it’s a real gift.”
This fall, Mercer hopes to hit the road once again with a stand-up tour, which is something he enjoys very much.
But for now, Mercer is going to concentrate on putting the garden in very soon, “which is something I’ve started to do since I wrapped up the TV business,” says Mercer.
The LFS fundraising gala will be held at the Lethbridge and District Exhibition Agri-food Hub and Trade Centre. The reception begins at 5:30 p.m.
For more information or to purchase tickets visit online at Spring to Light Benefit Gala — Lethbridge Family Services.
