The Weyburn and District Shrine Club will be selling carnations as a fund-raiser for their 17th year, starting on Thursday, May 12.

Shriners from Weyburn, Creelman, Fillmore, Pangman, Ogema, Bengough and Radville belong to the Weyburn and district club.

The Shriners will sell the carnations at a cost of $12, and will deliver the flowers on Tuesday, June 7. All flowers will be purchased locally.

The profits from this fund-raiser are used for the Wa Wa Shrine and Weyburn and District Shrine Club projects, such as helping send patients to Shrine hospitals for treatment.

Currently there are 73 children from Saskatchewan needing the services of the Shrine hospitals in Montreal, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Cincinnati and Portland. The Wa Wa Shriners in Saskatchewan, to which the Weyburn Shrine Club belongs, spent more than $125,000 in 2004 to send patients and their parents to Shrine Hospitals.

Those eligible for treatment at Shriners Hospitals include physically handicapped children from infancy to their 18th birthday, as well as acutely-burned children needing immediate care or plastic reconstructive surgery and rehabilitation, and treatment is given at no cost to the patient or their families.

The Shriners pay for all transportation costs to the hospitals, as well as accommodation costs for the parents of the children needing treatment.

For information about Shriners or the fund-raiser, contact Ken Harry or Hank Almquist in Weyburn.