Organizers of the 14th annual Lobsterfest are calling the event a success.

Raymond Lafleche is President of the Ste. Anne Hospital Foundation. He says 176 people came out to Saturday's event. Collectively, they ate approximately one thousand pounds of lobster.

Lafleche says it was great to feel government support from both municipal and provincial elected officials.

He notes they are still tallying how much money was raised on Saturday night, but suggests this event is more about giving recognition than about raising funds.

"We wanted to thank the community at large, our hospital community because of their great support over the last year-and-a-half with our helipad project," notes Lafleche.

A grand opening for that helipad took place June 1st.

Meanwhile, Lafleche says residents of Ste. Anne are very happy with the recent announcement that the hospital Emergency Room will soon resume 24 hour service. Last year, service was reduced to 12 hours per day due to a shortage of doctors. A spokesperson for Southern Health, says they have now filled those physician vacancies and have started the process of restoring 24 hour service.

"They want to feel safe," he says. "Even if there are services in Steinbach and Winnipeg, people still like having something local here."

According to Lafleche, the Ste. Anne Hospital opened in the early 1950's. It started as a municipal hospital after a number of municipalities banded together. He thinks the reason the foundation has so much support is because people like having a local hospital.

"Having rural services is very important for the people who live in our area," he says.