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While the novel coronavirus continues to alter daily life, STARS crews are continuing to fly missions daily for Albertans in desperate need of medical care.

STARS launched its 28th edition of the STARS Lottery on Sunday, giving Albertans the chance to help raise funds to support their vital operations, as well as offering the chance to win a variety of prizes. Like many other charities, STARS hasn’t been able to host their other fundraising events and encourages people to support the STARS Lottery, which raises 80 per cent of their funding needs.

“The STARS Lottery is our single-largest fundraiser of the year which brings in about $11 million a year, and that helps fund a good portion of our operations throughout the year,” says Mike Lamacchia, STARS Chief Operating Officer, Provincial Operations. “It is more important than ever, many of our fundraising events over the last year have been canceled, we haven’t been able to have gala’s, and other outdoor events, so this year, the lottery is a very important fundraiser for us.”

Since 1985, STARS has flown more than 45,000 missions across western Canada to help save lives and provide vital care to people when they need it the most. Lamacchia says Lethbridge is a close place to the STARS family as it was the location of their first mission, and a long-time support for the organization.

“Lethbridge is a key city for us, we fly about one mission a week to Lethbridge to look after sick and injured patients, so Lethbridge and surrounding areas have been a large supporter of STARS, and that is where our very first mission was in 1985,” says Lamacchia. “We are always appreciative for all the support, throughout the pandemic our donors across Alberta have been very supportive of us, we have seen an erosion in fundraising dollars, but I know that we aren’t the only ones. The Lottery is being supported entirely by Albertans as it always is, but purchasing of tickets has been really strong this year and we would like to thank everyone for continuing to support us by purchasing the STARS Lottery tickets.”

For the 28th edition of the STARS lottery, people are not only able to support STARS medical care services, but also be entered for a chance to win 2,500 prizes, valued at over $4.8 million. The 2021 STARS lottery features three grand prize show homes: one in Calgary, Edmonton and Lethbridge, as well as the early bird prize dream home away from home – a townhouse in Kelowna B.C., valued at over $1 million.

The Lethbridge Dream Home is the second grand prize, valued at $907,000, and was constructed by Van Arbor Homes. Val and Mike Lowen, owners of Van Arbor Homes, have been developing the STARS dream homes in Lethbridge over the last few years and have developed a strong relationship with not only STARS, but also the community that depends on their vital services.

“We have been building the STARS homes now for five years and we just love the STARS home lottery, we have a love for the STARS projects and the people because we have had a tragedy in our own lives when our oldest daughter died,” says Val Lowen. “We lived on a farm and help was not readily available, but we always wanted to do a memorial for her and that opportunity never came up. But when the STARS home came up, we decided that we would name the first home after her, so we named it the Jenna Michelle, and then decided that every STARS home that we made after that would be named after someone who was saved by STARS.”

This year’s Lethbridge dream home, The Ashton Oakley, is a three bedroom, two and a half bathrooms, modern-farmhouse. This 2,826 square foot, two-story build features bright rooms that flow within each other, and a secluded luxurious loft master bedroom.

“The house is a modern-farmhouse architectural build, and what that means is when you are building a farmhouse it looks like it has had some modern additions to the older-style farmhouse,” says Lowen. “It is a loft home with the master bedroom being in the loft area upstairs which is quite fun, and when you come through the double barn doors, there is a gorgeous floor-to-ceiling window in the bedroom, as well as there is a two-sided fireplace from the bathroom to the bedroom area, a big stone shower with double shower heads, it is quite breathtaking. We also put a laundry hookup up there so that the master doesn’t have to go all the way to the basement to do their laundry, it’s quite a self-contained master bedroom.”

The sleek and airy build of the house encompasses rustic elements and bold natural finishings to create a welcoming and inviting space.

“It is a very bright and sunny house that has a south exposure, there are just a lot of windows in the house for light to bleed through and I think that is breathtaking,” Lowen explains. “There is a floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace in the living room that is very comforting, the kitchen has got a huge island and three skylights above it and the light that comes in makes you feel like you are inside an open-sky feeling kitchen, there is a coffee bar area in the kitchen as well as a walk-in pantry.”

STARS usually invites the community into the homes, however, with current health restrictions there are no in-person viewings this year. Photos of all the homes, as well as a full breakdown of the prizes, including eight vacations and two luxury vehicles, along with 2,474 other prizes can be found at starslottery.ca.

The Early Bird Deadline is 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, Feb 25. The Final Draw deadline and the Lucky STARS 50/50 Draw deadline will be at the same time on March 18. To purchase your tickets and to help support the operations of STARS, visit starslottery.ca, or call 1-855-STARS 68.

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