The Winkler Community Foundation gathered Thursday to distribute its 2026 grants, totalling $255,961.
The selected community programs and projects run the gamut in their fields of focus, encompassing everything from accessible housing improvements and health-care equipment to recreation infrastructure and cultural initiatives.
“Today brings together the people who give, the people who do the work, and the impact that connects it all. And that’s something worth celebrating,” observed foundation executive director Myra Peters.
The annual grant reception is about celebrating not just the impactful work of the foundation’s recipients, but the journey taken to make these grants possible.
“It’s about partnerships, because none of this happens on its own. These projects exist because generosity meets action, and then you take it and you run with it,” Peters told the assembled recipients. “As a foundation, we have the privilege of stewarding gifts that have been given over many years. Gifts from individuals, from business, from families who really care about this community. Those gifts are invested and every year give back again and again.”
The grants are issued from the interest generated by the foundation’s various endowment funds, which includes its broad-in-scope community fund as well as several more funds focused on specific charities or causes. The original donations are never granted out, but instead give back in perpetuity.
“It’s pretty amazing when you think about it,” noted Peters. “A gift made once keeps giving year after year after year.”
Over the past three decades, the Winkler Community Foundation has distributed over $3.6 million to a host of community projects and initiatives.
Among the recipients this year was Central Station Community Centre, which received just over $10,000 for its poverty reduction project.
“This project is going to make a huge impact on the future of people and the poverty that people experience, or hopefully don’t experience, in the future,” said Krista Rempel, social impact director with the community centre. “We’re looking at creating real systemic changes, but also approaching poverty from the ground up.”
The funds will specifically support programs that help individuals and families improve their financial literacy, find both emergency and longterm housing, and better their mental health.
Without funding like this, this work couldn’t happen, but the grant means so much more, Rempel said.
“It’s pivotal, because financially we need the money to do all this, but the encouragement and the support of knowing that your community is behind us, that means a lot. It means we’re moving in the right direction and our community believes in what we’re doing.”
Regional Connections Immigrant Services received $10,000 as well, which executive director Steve Reynolds shared will be used to help more newcomers achieve their Canadian citizenship.
“The last couple of years, it’s become pretty apparent how unstable immigration can be and the system can be,” he said, noting obtaining citizenship provides newcomers with a greater sense of stability. “It’s a big step in their integration, and there’s a lot more of interest in doing that now.”
The foundation’s grant will allow them to hold citizenship classes to help newcomers prepare for the test, and to hold community celebrations for those who successfully obtain their citizenship.
“We wouldn’t be able to do this like at all without this funding,” Reynolds said. “It’s not part of our regular programming. It’s a real gap with the immigration system changes, and so this helps us address that gap and promote citizenship locally.”
Winkler Bible Camp received $5,000, which they’ll be using to purchase a long-needed ice machine.
“We do 1,200 meals a day during the summer camp, and what we’ve done previously is buckets of water in the freezer, which take up tons of space, to cool the water so we can have not lukewarm water,” shared executive director Dale Wiebe, noting it will be in action in just a couple of weeks.
Seeing all the different organizations in attendance at the reception was heartening, Wiebe noted.
“It’s a lot of money coming right back to helping people do good,” he said. “Southern Manitoba is such a benevolent area, and so just seeing it all happen and the amount of people, all the different community groups here today, makes you realize all the good work that’s being done.”
For the full list of grant recipients, head to winklercommunityfoundation.com.
