The Seniors for Kids Society is organizing a Jail N Bail fundraiser to raise money for its long-running program, which has been active for nearly 30 years.
The program connects senior volunteers with young people, offering mentorship as "school grandparents" to those who could benefit from their guidance and support.
Jail N Bail organizer, Marni Fedeyko said there's an opportunity for community members to turn themselves in or have their friends arrested.
"It's going be a lot of fun. Basically the title kind of explains itself. We're going lock you up, throw you in the slammer, and you got to pay to get your way out. If you don't pay, you don't get out. So that's the way it goes around here."
Once you're behind bars, you need to pay up before you're released.
"Once you get thrown in the slammer, it'll be $100 bucks to get yourself out, or you can pay $50 and have somebody else locked up, and then that person's going to have to pay $100 bucks."
Lynn Noble, program coordinator for Seniors for Kids said with the rising cost of supplies, the expansion of mentor partnerships, and plans for future growth, the board thought this would be a fun way to raise funds by "arresting" some of Cochrane's most valued community members.
"We operate in almost every Cochrane school, elementary, middle and high school programs, and we have a dedicated group of seniors who come in weekly to meet with their students of the school to do one-on-one intergenerational programming throughout the school year."
Organizers are hoping to raise approximately $6000
Fedeyko said to add to the fun of the atmosphere, there will be an old police cruiser from 1973 on site.
"It's been completely restored. I was lucky to be able to hunt it down through some of my connections, but it actually used to be the old police police chief's car from Calgary. He completely restored it. Now it's just used in fundraising type of events. People will be allowed to take photos beside the car."
Jail N Bail is set to go on Sept. 20 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Centennial Plaza in Historic Downtown Cochrane.
Kingsmith Builders and the Building Futures Program built a jail cell for the event.
"They're going to set it up for me. We're going to have some kids down there talking about the program as well as they're going to dismantle it for me. So I just wanted to give a shout out to them, because this would not be possible if I didn't already have a jail cell."
