Many fundraisers and initiatives have been created and held since the Humboldt Broncos bus crash at the beginning of April, with some locally and some that took place around the world. 

This past weekend those efforts kicked into high gear as Country Thunder Saskatchewan held a benefit concert that saw hockey players, musicians, volunteers and organizations all leap forward wanting to help. 

During and following the event social media filled with praise for the people who were able to make an event of this size happen right here in the prairies. On Thursday that appreciation continued and it came from Gerry Krochak, the General Manager of Country Thunder, who said it took many moving parts for this benefit concert to come together. 

"It was such an amazing night, I can't thank people enough, the artists for committing their time and wanting to be there. The venue for allowing us in to it, the Saskatchewan Rush had juggled around practice times so we could have the venue. It was really cool, there were a few tears, but a lot of joy in that room... music and sports bring people together and it was amazing to stand shoulder to shoulder with these families and the people of Humboldt."

He quickly noted that it wasn't just Country Thunder organizers and musicians who were on board and collecting funds for this worthy cause. 

"We're cutting cheques to the families this week for $14,769.85 for each of these families. The overall revenue from ticket sales was right around that half million dollar mark, less a few expenses which were minimal," said Krochak. "Things like t-shirts sold there by 22Fresh for the SJHL Assistance Fund, jerseys donated by NHL players past and present raised an addition $120,000 and the 50/50 draw netted another $24,000. The grand total was $588,120, where else besides Saskatchewan could this have happened."

With things like productions costs coming in at around $100,000, they were able to give each family a total of $14,769. 

Krochak said it came together quickly due to a lot of helping hands with kind hearts attached.