With just four days until The Coldest Night Of The Year (CNOY) in Cochrane, The Helping Hands Society of Cochrane and Area has already skyrocketed past its goal of raising $40,000.

"We're feeling so fortunate to have the support of our sponsors and our walkers but we figure why stop there?" says Helping Hands executive director Laura McDonald. "We've kept the same goal for three years in a row now and what we're seeing now is an indication that we can grow this event and we haven't hit our capacity yet."

She says that reaching their goal has just motivated the community to reach higher and set an even bigger record for the 2023 event.

"We're working harder than ever now because we surpassed our goal quite early. We're definitely still drumming up interest in our walkers and this is a special call out to our walkers who haven't yet earned their special Coldest Night Of The Year 2023 limited edition touques to try to hit your goals because we'd love to hand out touques to every walker on Saturday."

There is still time to register and raise funds before the event this Saturday evening at Riverfront Park. The top contributor will be going home with a brand-new Garmin smartwatch.

If you are looking for extra tips to raise funds, McDonald says you don't have to go far outside your circle to make a difference. "We say 'collect five' is the idea. If you can just register your team and each walker tries to find five donations you're well on your way.

"That's all it is, just five genuine personal points of contact with five of your closest friends and family. Collect five and you're good to go."