CT scan drive picked as Safeway charity

FORT FRANCES—Local Canada Safeway employees chose to adopt the Riverside Foundation for Health Care’s CT scan drive for its 2006/07 “We Care” campaign.
Safeway staff took time this weekend to look over applications from 14 local non-profit organizations and voted in favour of the “Care Close to Home 2” campaign.
The deadline to submit an application for the “We Care” campaign was Friday (Oct. 20).
“I was aware the Foundation had put an application in for the charity, and I think it’s great news,” campaign chairman Deane Cunningham said Monday morning.
“It’s something we had hoped for.
“I know there was a lot of other charities who had applied, and I certainly appreciate the staff at Safeway choosing our charity,” he added.
“We’ll have to put together some fundraisers and work hard,” conceded Cunningham. “We know the potential is there, and we can raise quite a bit of money for this project.”
The goal of the “Care Close to Home 2” campaign is to raise $1.5 million locally to purchase a CT scanner for La Verendrye Hospital.
For the 2005/06 campaign, Canada Safeway staff had chosen to adopt the “Community Chest” for the third time in five years.
Store staff handed over a cheque for $33,838 to the “Community Chest” back on Sept. 28, wrapping up the campaign with that charity for the year.
Safeway also had given the group another $15,000 earlier this year—for a grand total of more than $48,000.
Since 1998, local Safeway employees have helped raise money for the Riverside Foundation for Health Care, Friends of the Library, Fort Frances Friends of Animals, the Kiwanis skate park, Crime Stoppers, and the “Community Chest.”
Since the Safeway “We Care” program’s inception eight years ago, more than $14.3 million has been raised for charities across Canada.
(Fort Frances Daily Bulletin)