Duane Hicks
The town doled out this year’s share of the Moffat Family Fund—$51,021.37—to a total of 12 local causes during council’s regular meeting Monday night.
The “Friends of the Museum” received $6,000, which will be used to create interactive programming to engage patrons, especially youth.
In the future, visitors to the Fort Frances Museum will be able to use tablet computers installed with an app, which will provide them with information about the varied permanent exhibits upstairs at the museum.
Museum curator Sherry George said interactive programming will make the museum “a more inviting place” for youth, who might think it’s “a place for old people and old antiques.”
“Depending on where their interests lie, they could get some background information on a specific item in a display case,” she noted.
“If they’re interested in the fur trade, they can find a story on Lady Frances Simpson,” George offered.
“This is the kind of thing we want to do.
“We’ve seen it work in Kenora,” she added. “They find it’s not just the little ones that are using it—every age group is using it and enjoying it.
“You might have a tourist that has an hour,” George noted.
“He’s not particularly interested in the fur trade but he’s really interested in the First Nations’ display, so that’s where he’s going to focus his time and get background information on those items and those cases.”
Museum summer intern Julia Piskiewicz already has been working on the interactive programming project, researching permanent exhibit themes and designing content for tablets.
She also has been working with Jeremy Hughes of the Fort Frances Library Technology Centre to determine which types of technology will work best for the project.
The “Friends of the Library” helped the “Friends of the Museum” get the funding through use of its charitable number.
George, meanwhile, is excited about the possibilities the interactive programming will provide.
“I think it’s really going to add a different dimension to the museum,” she enthused.
“I feel we really need to go this route,” George added. “We need to get out of the Dark Ages and into the present and, hopefully, the future.
“We’re hitting everybody.”
Other recipients of Moffat Fund dollars this year included:
•Kiwanis Sunny Cove Camp—$10,000 for 50 new mattresses for eight sleeping cabins;
•The Salvation Army—$5,000 to help local children participate in sports;
•KidSport and community partners—$5,000 to get more kids participating in sport and recreation opportunities;
•Confederation College (Rainy River District campus)—$4,321.37 for summer youth camps for kids aged 11-15;
•908 Rainy Lake Air Cadet Squadron—$4,000 to enhance programming, and pay for a space for cadets to hold meetings and conduct programs;
•Friends of Kids Sports—$4,000 to make sports available to all kids and subsidize individual families who are financially-challenged so kids can participate;
•Fort Frances Community Garden and Kids’ Club—$3,200 to support the kids’ garden club, and to expand the community garden space and its ever-growing raised bed program;
•Fort Frances Judo Club—$3,000 to replace judo mats;
•St. Mary’s Church—$2,500 for its Discovery Camp for youth aged seven-11;
•Rainy River District Festival of the Performing Arts—$2,000 to help hire adjudicators; and
•Rainy River District Community Policing—$2,000 for “Project Safe Hallowe’en.”
As in previous years, non-profit organizations were welcome to apply for a share of the Moffat dollars as long as their funding proposals would benefit children, families, and the “less advantaged.”
Back in December, 2001, 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.
In 2002, Fort Frances applied for—and was chosen to be—one of these recipient communities.
Year after year, the town—along with other communities once served by the Moffat family’s cable television business—is eligible to receive some of the interest from that $100-million investment.
The amount varies somewhat from year to year.
