‘He would be thrilled’: KSAR receives $160K from Middleton family for future headquarters site

“He’s been gone a long time now, but we don’t have a place that is set aside as something that’s a Tom Middleton memorial,” Middleton told CFJC Today. “There are other opportunities for naming rights within KSAR, but it was the training room that I really wanted.”

“Tom believed in training. He provided training to the fire department back in the day to share his knowledge of fighting fuel fires.”

KSAR president Paula Davies said they were “over the moon” when they got wind about the Middleton family’s intention to donate money towards their much-needed headquarters.

“We can’t thank the Middleton family enough and it’s a great honour to have Margot and her children donate that amount of money to us,” Davies said. “It’s an honourable legacy.”

While Kamloops Search and Rescue has committed to raising at least $1.4 million towards this project, its fundraising campaign has a total goal of $2.5 million. Davies is optimistic this donation will inspire others in the Kamloops area to open up their wallets.

“We’re still in the phase where we want to get a few more larger, leadership-type gifts under our belt before we go public with our campaign,” she said. “We are hoping to get some more of those donations and then we will announce that our campaign will be public and we hope that the public will donate.”

“For us, it’s a sizable donation but we’re happy to make that,” Middleton added. “They do have a way to go in raising funds so I’m hoping this will galvanize others to do the same; that it can perhaps be a bit of a driver to start that fundraising off in a good way.”

This donation comes not long after the Thompson-Nicola Regional District (TNRD) obtained electoral approval to borrow up to $6.3 million over 20 years. The City of Kamloops is also contributing $2.4 million to cover the costs of building a new fire station to serve the Rayleigh area.

“I’ve been watching this project for a number of years but we couldn’t make the commitment until the TNRD and KSAR were able to make their commitment to building the building,” Middleton said.

Preliminary drawings show the future headquarters will have five equipment bays for KSAR and two for KFR. In addition to the Tom Middleton training room, there will be a kitchen, board room, office, locker room, washrooms as well as laundry and storage space.

Davies told CFJC that KSAR has about $200,000 set aside for its new headquarters, which will replace its current location on Mission Flats Road in Kamloops.

“It’s a good feeling to get this money but there is lots of work to do yet,” Davies said. “We’re rolling up our sleeves.”

Construction on the new facility could begin as early as next year, and when complete, Middleton said it’ll help keep the memory of her late husband alive for generations to come.

“He would be thrilled,” Middleton said, when asked how Tom would react to the donation, if he were still alive. “He loved the outdoors. He loved search and rescue. He loved fire departments. He loved life and he knew the benefit of giving back to he community.”

“That’s what [Tom] was all about – he did that every day.”

by Aaron Schulze & Victor Kaisar

‘He would be thrilled’: KSAR receives $160K from Middleton family for future headquarters site

Our Community