The Calgary Stampede is an annual 10-day event in Calgary featuring rodeos, concerts, and other Western entertainment. BMO has a longstanding relationship with the Stampede, dating back over 100 years. Each year, BMO volunteers serve pancake breakfast to thousands of children through the BMO Kids Day event. The author and other BMO interns volunteered at this year's breakfast, helping to serve over 16,000 pancakes, sausages, and juice boxes to attendees. After volunteering, the interns attended a appreciation lunch with BMO colleagues to share their internship experiences.

1. Interns Stampeding
By Haley Daniels, Commercial Analyst, Calgary Main Branch
The Calgary stampede is the largest outdoor show in the world held annually in Calgary. The
event boasts an incredible number of fun activities and events: riding in the midway, eating
ridiculous deep fried food combinations, catching the Chuckwagen races, watching the rodeo, circus
acrobats, expert divers, show dogs, agriculture competitions, and concerts at the Coke stage, just to
name a few. The Stampede is a Calgary-wide event spanning 10 days of pancake breakfasts,
corporate parties, and special fundraisers. The downtown core turns into a scene straight out of a
western movie, where suited up business employees trade their polished shoes for cowboy boots,
ironed shirts for plaid, dress pants for jeans, and friendly cowboy hats to top it all off. Although there
is an expectation for work to get done in these 10 days; there are significant networking
opportunities to be had at the corporate day parties that encourage square dancing, electrical bull
riding, and partying for all.
Brennan Yadlowski (left), Alex Demchuck (right)
We had the opportunity to participate in the annual BMO Kids Day where BMO provides free
admission for all before 9:00 am, including a kid friendly show in the grandstand while enjoying an
authentic pancake breakfast. Arriving on the grounds at 6:15 am, I had never seen the midway so
dead, as it was always overcrowded and almost impossible to walk through without bumping into
some strangers shoulder. We arrived at the registration table to find out our volunteer assignments
and had some breakfast before the hordes of people filled the area. With our bellies full of
pancakes, sausages, and coffee, we resumed our volunteer positions while the crowds thickened.

2. We were all given a variety of different tasks such as batter mixing, pancake flipping, sausage
cooking (Fun fact: if you are given this station you have the permanent smell of sausages following
you around for the rest of the day), waste management, crowd control, syrup serving, and juice box
distribution. Myself and another intern from our office were given the waste management duty
where all of the plates and utensils used were compostable and all of the juice boxes were being
donated to Girl Guide’s Calgary, so our job was to help individuals dispose of their waste in the
proper containers. Although it was pouring rain and freezing cold; seeing all the kids dressed in cute
little red cowboy boots and denim shirts with miniature cowboy hats made it all worth it!
Once we were done managing juice boxes and flipping pancakes, we headed over to Nashville
North, which is a giant tent that is usually occupied from early evening to late night with country
stars and party on goers; however, in our case it was BMO volunteers for an appreciation lunch. This
was a great opportunity to get to know our colleagues and senior leaders in a less formal
environment. It was great catching up with the interns across Alberta to find out that although we
are all in different branches, we have all shared common experiences throughout our summer
internship. I reached out to some of the leaders who attended the event and this is their message
to you:
(Brennan Yadlowski, Alex Demchuck, Jessica Maj, Haley Daniels) / (Haley Daniels, Andrew Auerbach, Jean Auerbach)
“The Calgary Stampede is a very special event for BMO. We have a relationship with Calgary
Stampede that goes back over 100 years and as Susan Brown describes it, the relationship is
a friendship more than a sponsorship. My wife Jean and I had such a great time at
Stampede meeting many of our colleagues and customers. The pancake flipping for the
27,000 people that received complimentary admission thanks to BMO was a particular
highlight. I hope to join again next year. Yahoo!”
Andrew Auerbach, HD SALES & Distribution Canada, P&C Banking
“We’ve done the Kid’s Day Pancake Breakfast for 13 years. Each year, we serve somewhere
between 15,000 and 20,000 people for breakfast, and most people have two pancakes. I

3. therefore calculated a conservative estimate of half a million pancakes served since the
beginning. This year, we served 16,000 breakfasts, which means 16,000 sausage patties,
32,000 pancakes, 16,000 juice boxes, and wagon loads of syrup!
It’s a wonderful way for us at BMO to welcome the community to Stampede, and given the
focus on children, it’s right up our alley in terms of the kinds of community events we like to
sponsor.
One last fact you might like to throw into your blog. We’ve banked the Stampede since
before it was even the Stampede! We began providing banking services to them in the late
1800’s, back when the organization was known as the Calgary Exhibition Association. When
the Stampede officially began in 1912, we were there with them, and we’ve been their
banker ever since. We have a wonderful partnership with the Stampede, and it’s likely one
of our oldest and most enduring in the country.”
Susan Brown, SVP, Alberta & North West Territories Division