The town is striking up the “Fort Frances Community Foundation” to decide what to do with $33,000—and the public is welcome to attend a meeting Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Civic Centre to get involved.
“The response has been a little low, but the meeting is going ahead for sure,” CAO Bill Naturkach said Tuesday morning, referring to a request from the town for interested parties to contact Naturkach before today.
“The fact they didn’t call ahead of time doesn’t preclude anyone from coming,” he added. “We have a core group right now, but we’re always looking for more input from the community.”
The core group consists of Naturkach, Shelly Shute (of the District Social Services Administrative Board), Capt. Eric Alcock of the local Salvation Army, Coun. Sharon Tibbs, Linda Hamilton of the “Spirit of Christmas,” and Mayor Glenn Witherspoon.
The money earmarked for the town comes from the Winnipeg Foundation, which is responsible for the Moffat Family Fund.
Last year, the Randy Moffat family donated $100 million to the Foundation to help families in 12 communities where the former Moffat Communications did business, including Fort Frances.
The town will receive such funding year after year.
“A lot of communities have a committee like this,” Naturkach had noted previously. “While we’ve always had community-minded groups, like the Canadian Cancer Society and the [Riverside Foundation for Health Care], their focus was much more narrow.”
He added the new Foundation also could deal with any other community funding that comes along in the future, like state bequeaths.
The decision to open up the Foundation to as many community organizations as possible was made at a preliminary meeting in April.
