The annual Barley & Smoke fundraiser will take place on August 24, 2024 and it’s so much more than a fun evening of food, beer and music. It’s also a chance to see how businesses come together to support kids and families affected by childhood cancer through Kids Cancer Care Foundation of . Alberta. For the inaugural event in 2019, five reading forts were designed and built by Calgary companies specifically for the kids attending Camp Kindle located in Water Valley, Alberta and operated by Kids Cancer Care Foundation. 

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“They were a really big success at the camp with the kids. When we were discussing how the forts could be different, Kids Cancer Care came up with the idea of creating a Western Towne for the kids to play in,” says Barb Walters, the volunteer project manager of the Western Towne exhibit.  

The combined efforts and tremendous contributions of local interior designers, builders and numerous trades over the years has resulted in the creation of several kid-sized forts that form an old-fashioned Western Towne that consists of a sheriff’s office and jail, a bakery café, puppet theatre, a tailor and dress-up shop, saloon, bank, general store, schoolhouse, hotel and even a mini train station, towne hall, post office, blacksmith, library and a dental office where kids affected by cancer can go back in time to play and forget about cancer.