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Fernie Community Fund is growing and giving
The Fernie Community Fund is growing and giving!
Over the past year, generous individuals, businesses, and organizations have helped the Fernie Community Fund grow from its initial $100,000 endowment to over $135,000 in permanently invested funds.
A huge thank you to the Fernie Brewing Company and Fernie Cardlock for including the Fernie Community Fund in their corporate giving. Thank you to the individual donors who have contributed as well, including a matching gift from a local donor’s employer.
The Fernie Community Fund also received a grant from the Columbia Basin Trust’s Community Initiatives and Affected Areas Program. Special thanks to the Calgary Foundation for making a gift to the Fernie Community Fund.
To make an online donation to the Fernie Community Fund, please use this link.
In addition, the Fernie Community Fund and the Community Foundation of the Kootenay Rockies were very pleased to work with the East family and the Elk Valley Hospital Foundation to transfer the Dr. Sparling and Mrs. Mary East Memorial Scholarship to the Community Foundation of the Kootenay Rockies. Thanks to the generosity of the East family, this fund now totals over $50,000. As a permanent endowment, the annual scholarship from this fund will continue, every year, forever, supporting local students who are studying in the medical field. This is an amazing testament to the East family’s legacy in Fernie and the surrounding area. To make an online donation to the Dr. Sparling and Mrs. Mary East Memorial Scholarship Fund, please use this link.
As the Fernie Community Fund’s permanent endowments continue to grow, the fund’s annual giving to the community is growing as well!
In 2018, the Fernie Community Fund was thrilled to present $545 to each of these local non-profits: Fernie Women’s Resource Centre (Nobody’s Perfect Parenting Program), Tobacco Plains Indian Band (Traditional Clothing Project), and Fernie Pet Society (Rail Yard Parks and Trails Project). Stay tuned for even greater giving in 2019!
The Fernie Community Fund is led by a local Steering Committee: Eric Johnstone (Chair), Patty Vadnais, Aysha Haines, Randal MacNair, Jennifer Cronin, Andrew Hayden, and David Street. The members of the Fernie Community Fund Steering Committee generously share their time and expertise to administer this permanent community ‘nest egg’, which benefits Fernie and the surrounding area (i.e. east to Hosmer, west to Elko, and including the South Country).
The Fernie Community Fund gratefully accepts donations online (see the above links) as well as via cheque, cash, or e-transfer. For more information, please contact Lynnette Wray, Executive Director: Phone 250-426-1119/Email[email protected].
The Fernie Community Fund operates under the umbrella of the Community Foundation of the Kootenay Rockies (CFKR). CFKR currently holds a total of over $2 million in 30 permanently invested funds. CFKR was established in 2003, is a federally incorporated not-for-profit and a CRA-registered charity, and is governed by a 13-member volunteer board, which employs one staff person.
For more information about the Fernie Community Fund, please like/follow/share our Facebook page and visit the CFKR website: www.CFKRockies.ca.
Lead image: The Blair family photo shows two of Dr. Sparling and Mrs. Mary East’s sons: Blair East (left); Lynnette Wray, CFKR Exec. Dir., (centre), and Fraser East (right). Photos submitted
Community Foundation of the Kootenay Rockies
