Comox Valley Community Foundation hands out $49,000 to local charities
Marcel Tetrault, Comox Valley Echo : Friday, January 22, 2010
A total of just over $49,000 was distributed to nine local organizations by the Comox Valley Community Foundation.
The annual disbursement will be used for a wide variety of initiatives, from supporting the families of sick children in Vancouver to improving therapeutic gardens for the elderly and disabled.
"Today is the day that, at the foundation, we get to have some fun," said foundation President Blaine Douglas. We get to hand out money today.
The foundation has distributed a total of about $650,000 over the past 14 years. It currently has about $1.2 million in assets and each year's grants are paid for out of the income from those invested funds.
Every year they go to the community for grant applications in September.
"We look at need, is it going to be of benefit to the community, is it a sustainable project," said Douglas. "We don't want to fund just a one-time project, we want to fund something that ... is going to be an ongoing benefit to the community.
"We also look for broad appeal. Is it going to benefit just these kids here, or is it going to benefit every kid in the community."
The biggest recipient this year was the Denman Seniors and Museum Society, which received $10,000 for a fitness room with cardio equipment and weights.
The Mount Washington Ski Club received $9,264 to support ski programmes for four to 17 year olds.
The Beaufort Association for the Mentally Handicapped was granted $7,500 for their RePaw Social Eco-Enterprise, a pet treat business. The money will be used to upgrade their dehydrators and help get the business going.
The Union Bay Community Club and Recreation Association received $7,000 to install two heat pumps in their 68-year-old building and to switch over to 400-amp service.
You Are Not Alone (YANA) received a grant of $3,750 to install air conditioning in their four Vancouver apartments, used to house families with sick children who have to travel to Vancouver for treatment.
"This does allow them to come out (of the hospital), having a home and keeping the family together," said YANA treasurer Sue Bowie.
The Anderton Therapeutic Gardens Society was granted $3,500 to upgrade their irrigation system and to raise their enabling garden to make it easier on the backs of the seniors tending it as well as more accessible for those in wheelchairs.
There were two recipients of $3,000 grants -- the Royal Canadian Legion, for two large murals to be installed on the wall of the Sid Williams Theatre in honour of veterans of World War One, World War Two and Korea as well as today's peacekeepers, and the Courtenay and District Museum Society.
Judy Hagen, widow of former Comox Valley MLA Stan Hagen, said Stan would have appreciated the fact that money from the fund set up in his name was going to preserve the past at the museum.
"I'm thrilled, I'm thrilled out of my mind," said Hagen. "Sometimes we have to look back to see what happened so we'll know where we should be going."
And the Canadian Red Cross received $2,000 for facility upgrades for equipment cleaning.
"Every year we're really impressed with the number of people that apply for grants and represent organizations that make such a difference to the Valley," said foundation vice president Tim McKinnon.
"There are so many people involved, they are giving up a great deal of their own time and it's just selfless. They are doing things that make the Valley better ... for a broad spectrum of people, so it's pretty exciting work."