Battle of Alberta (charities): Edmonton woman’s tweet results in thousands of dollars donated to Calgary charity

An Edmonton woman’s goal to see a few donations head to a Calgary charity after a heated Battle of Alberta has erupted with thousands of children being the beneficiaries.

Sam Costa shared a tweet Tuesday morning asking Edmontonians to step up and donate to Calgary charity Brown Bagging for Calgary’s Kids days after a Calgarian looked to fund billboards with the face of Matthew Tkachuk on them in Edmonton.

Since then, Costa’s tweet has been shared hundreds of times with a total of $6,500 was raised from 169 donations for Brown Bagging by 10:45 a.m. Wednesday.

UPDATE: Brown Bagging says they surpassed $10,500 in donations around 2 p.m. Wednesday. Brett Wilson announced he was matching up to $10,000 in donations.

“Originally I had seen a couple of people make comments about how raising money for billboards was a little bit selfish considering you could put that money to good use,” said Sam Costa, who shared a tweet Tuesday morning that has since been retweeted nearly 500 times. “Then I thought ‘why don’t we respond by doing exactly that?’

“It took off. It’s a lot of positive reviews, even people in Calgary are reaching out saying they appreciate it. I didn’t think it would get this big. I thought maybe if we could get a couple of hundred dollars, it would go a long way.”

After Saturday’s game that saw @Edmonton Oilers F @Zack Kassian and @Calgary Flames F @Matthew Tkachuk battle on the ice, off the ice, a Calgarian launched a GoFundMe to get Tkachuk’s face on Edmonton area billboards.

While a Calgary radio station has since stepped up to the bat to pay for it, allowing the $3,700 raised to go to supporting the fight against ALS, Costa’s tweet will help feed thousands of Calgary students.

“We just saw the tweet from Sam in Edmonton that she wanted to turn this rivalry into something more positive, and she said she googled ‘best charities in Calgary’ and we came up,” said Tanya Koshowski, executive director of Brown Bagging. “The donations just started coming in, which is incredible.

“We’re super grateful and so honored for Sam choosing us.”

Koshowski said Brown Bagging works to help feed Calgary children who come from families who struggle economically and that every day around 4,700 hungry kids are fed.

“It makes a difference for these kids — it’s a small act of a lunch that makes an enormous difference in their lives,” she said. “The impact of (the $6,500 in donations) is well over 3,000 kids fed because our cost for a lunch is only two dollars.

“Every donation is making a huge difference to feed these hungry kids. The support of things like this and people who give generous donations we’re able to meet the demand of the need.”

Anyone can donate by visiting their website www.bb4ck.org, and if you live in Calgary, Koshowski added they’re always looking for volunteers in their kitchen.

On Twitter: @zjlaing