The Altona Community Foundation recently put almost $84,000 back into the community.
Altona Community Foundation president Haydon Friesen (left in both photos) presents reps from the Rhineland Area Food Bank (top) and The Community Exchange (above) with grants. The two agencies are part of 19 community groups and projects that received foundation funding this spring
There were 19 successful grant applications along with two more that were continuing multi-year commitments. With a total distribution amount of $83,895, foundation president Haydon Friesen said it feels good to be making such an impact in the community.
“We’re very happy with it,” he said. “Anytime you can push some of these projects over the finish line to make sure that they are operating in our community, it’s great to see.
“This granting cycle we were able to support almost every single one of the applications in some form or another,” Friesen noted. “Not everybody got exactly what they were asking for, but there isn’t always enough funds to go around for everything that everyone was asking for … but we’re still very happy with what we were able to contribute.
“We had a few new grant applications, new grant applicants that we haven’t had before, so that’s always great to see, as something that we work on as a board is trying to attract new applicants and helping out areas where we might not necessarily have supported in the past.”
The approved grants cover a broad spectrum of projects and organizations.
“It ranges from sports, arts and culture to seniors, Genesis House, Blue Sky—you name it, you’ll see it on the list,” Friesen said.
A lot of these organizations and projects really rely on receiving this kind of support.
“We’re not able to fund 100 per cent of the projects all the time, so any help that we can provide these organizations financially to ensure that they’re able to complete these projects or to ease the burden on them from a financial standpoint, we’re very happy to do so,” Friesen said.
He noted two of the projects—$8,500 to Altona Soccer for its new fields and $5,000 to the Kiddie Sunshine Centre for its new building—carry over as part of a multi-year commitment.
Here is a list of the other approved grants:
• Altona and Area Family Resource: $700 for mini chefs in kitchen.
• Altona and District Heritage Research Centre, $3,800 for shelving and chairs.
• Altona Maroons, $7,500 for dressing room renovations.
• Altona Maroons, $2,000 for new hockey uniforms.
• Altona Minor Baseball, $2,500 for diamonds tarps and a scoreboard panel.
• Blue Sky Opportunities, $5,000 for a transport vehicle.
• Genesis House, $4,300 for a washer and dryer at Clearwater House.
• Gretna Prairie Centre, $2,000 for exterior doors and locks.
• Kiddie Sunshine Centre, $500 for display boards for student art.
• KidSport Manitoba south chapter, $750 for registration support for applicants.
• Lions Foundation of Canada, $2,500 for vision and hearing screening.
• Neubergthal Heritage Foundation, $10,000 for sound quality improvements.
• Pembina Valley Humane Society, $500 for a behavioural training program.
• Rhineland food bank, $8,000 for renovations for food delivery access.
• Rosenfeld skating rink, $2,900 for green space improvements.
• The Community Exchange, $4,000 for barrier-free access to washrooms and $6,000 for food supplies for its Thursday lunch program.
• The Gardens on Tenth, $7,445 for chaplain’s office space.
“We’re very happy to see the dollars get into the community’s check, get to work and to push these projects over the finish line,” said Friesen.
