The King's Own Contributes to an Unusual Challenge Coin Challenge

In March, the King’s Own sent Ryan Pilmer of Nova Scotia a regimental challenge coin to add to his growing collection.

Early in the year, Ryan, who was born with a rare condition called White Sutton Syndrome, reached out to the King's Own Calgary Regiment via his father David, to see if the regiment would be interested in contributing to Ryan's challenge coin collection. 

Ryan had wanted to collect something of significance and became interested in collecting challenge coins two years ago when his uncle, who is a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), suggested it.

When Ryan first started asking around about collecting challenge coins, someone suggested making a corresponding donation to a local charity.  Expecting perhaps 15 or fewer coins, David committed to donating $5 per coin received.  To their surprise, they received over 70 coins in the initial ask, and made good on their donation promise to charity!  News of Ryan's desire to collect challenge coins has since spread, and his collection is now over 1000 coins and 400 patches.

The King's Own was honoured to send a coin, a camp flag previously flown at The Military Museums in Calgary, and a card signed by members of the regiment to Ryan, and received a message back from the family: "He absolutely loved the items, especially the card signed by the regiment and the flag (both are firsts for him in this collecting journey)."

Onward!