Members of PADDLE, North Stars Hockey and the West Ferris Scout Troop, the charities that will benefit from the North Bay & Area Community Foundation fundraising dinner, take time out to pose for a picture with foundation chair Jack Burrows.
Members of PADDLE, North Stars Hockey and the West Ferris Scout Troop, the charities that will benefit from the North Bay & Area Community Foundation fundraising dinner, take time out to pose for a picture with foundation chair Jack Burrows. The North Bay & Area Community Foundation is kicking into their fundraising season to help five community groups they have identified as this year's donation recipients.
Foundation chair Jack Burrows announced that the group will be hosting a spring fundraising dinner campaign during a news conference Thursday. He says the focus of the dinner and auction in April will be to direct funds raised to five small charities in the area that offer important services but don't have the resources to seriously fundraise in the community.
“This is the first dinner we are having,” he notes.
“It's a dinner to raise funds for (what) we feel are five charities in North Bay, smaller charities, that don't have the means to raise money own their own.
“There's an awful lot of charities in the city of North Bay that need funds that just haven't the wherewithal to raise them so we've identified five, three of them are here this morning, and we are going to have this dinner to raise the funds for that purpose.”
Members of PADDLE, North Stars Hockey and the West Ferris Scout Troop attended the news conference and all the representatives agreed that the money raised will go a long way to keep their programs going.
“It's above and beyond what anyone needed to do,” says North Stars spokes person Drew Demers-Ridenour.
Ridenour says because of his special needs he never played organised sport till the North Stars came along and says the whole focus of the team is to have fun without judgment.
“Typical and normal … nobody's normal and there is no typical … so we get out on the ice nobody cares it we don't score a goal everybody is happy as long as we got out on the ice.”
Sara Rick says the funds will help supplement items for the program like craft supplies and computer programs. PADDLE is the community-based program that provides adults with special needs lifelong learning experiences through academics, physical fitness, life skills education, recreation and leisure and Rick says without it she doesn't know what she would do.
“I would probably be really bored,” she states.
“I'd be at home watching movies, playing on the computer on Facebook all the time so being at PADDLE it is helping me interact with my friends.”
It the foundation is successful with ticket sales each group selected will receive $1,000.
Tickets are $100 a piece and can be purchased by calling 497-3737 or from any North Bay Rotary Club member.
