Community fund recipients revealed

The Fort Frances Community Fund has decided which local individuals, groups, and organizations will share more than $56,000 given to the town, with the recipients revealed in a recent report.
The committee received 21 submissions, with a total request value of $175,202.30, said Fort Frances CAO Bill Naturkach, who heads the community fund committee first struck last year to disperse the funds.
After some tough decisions, the following recipients were chosen:
•Kiwanis skate park—$12,500 towards construction;
•Fort Frances Centennial Celebrations Advisory Committee—$1,000 to be used for arts and crafts;
•Fort Frances Community Chest/Canadian Cancer Society—$6,500 for a volunteer drive program;
•Fort Frances and District Association for Community Living—$5,100 for a vehicle lift;
•Fort Frances Highlanders—$6,570 for uniforms and instruments;
•Fort Frances Museum—$1,250 for activity kits to be used to teach heritage programming in local schools;
•Fort Frances Volunteer Bureau—$2,500 for the Youth Educating Parents/ Professionals/Peers programs, as well as assorted equipment and games;
•Friends of the Library—$3,000 for a teen centre and teen-oriented books;
•Friends of Little League—$4,000 for uniforms and clinic registrations;
•Joy of Life Fellowship Church—$3,000 for food for David’s Deli soup kitchen;
•Memorial Sports Centre—$2,445.06 towards swimming toys/teaching tools;
•Memorial Sports Centre—$2,500 towards equipment and supplies for a summer youth camp;
•Fort Frances detachment of the OPP—$1,000 for the D.A.R.E. program; and
•Rainy Lake Air Cadet Squadron—$5,000 for meeting expenses.
The smallest request was for $1,000 while the largest was for $25,000, with many in the wide range between, Naturkach noted.
The recommendations now will be submitted to the Winnipeg Foundation, which then presents the final request for funds to the Moffat Family for final approval.
If all goes well, the funds should be turned over to the approved recipients by late summer or fall.
The deadline to apply for funding was April 15. Applicants had to give a written submission detailing a project or program which would help children and families.
The call for applications was first made March 14.
The exact amount of money to be divvied up this year is $56,365.06—more than $26,000 more than last year.
Naturkach previously had explained there were two reasons for this, the first of which is the nature of the Moffat Family Fund.
Last year, the Moffat family entrusted $100 million to the Winnipeg Foundation, which, in turn, is responsible for investing the money and distributing it to communities in need.
After learning of this, Fort Frances applied for—and was chosen to be—one of these recipient communities.
“It’s the proceeds from that investment growth that we receive. It’s market driven, and apparently, it was a pretty good year,” said Naturkach, adding the town has been informed the annual amount it receives potentially could reach $100,000.
The second reason was because the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (Lodge #313) had been awarded $6,365.06 from the fund last year for vehicle rental and transportation costs for a driving program to assist disadvantaged individuals and to determine the extent of out-of-town specialty health care needs of Fort Frances residents.
But the Elks later determined the amount was not enough to successfully implement this service and so requested the Moffat Family Fund sub-committee re-award this amount to another of its programs which provides hearing aids to the young and elderly.
On March 10, town council declined to re-award the $6,365.06 until the recipients for the 2003 program have been processed, thus adding that amount back into the pool.
Last year, the local committee reviewed 14 submissions, requesting a total of $156,794.94 in projects.
The selected recipients included the Rainy Lake Air Cadet Squadron, Ontario Students Against Impaired Driving, Fort Frances Museum, Friends of Little League Baseball, Fort Frances Toy Lending Resource Centre, Planned Out-of-Home Respite program, the Salvation Army after-school kids’ club, and the Elks.