Written by Ronny Guenther Wednesday, Dec 21 2022, 10:32 AM
Executive Director for the Boundary Trails Health Centre Foundation, Shannon Samatte-Folkett, joined The Morning Show to talk about their 50/50 fundraiser going on now.
In previous years, lockdowns kept the foundation from hosting its annual fundraisers, thus giving birth to the 50/50. It continues now by popular demand.
Written by Candace Derksen & Robyn Wiebe Saturday, Nov 12 2022, 5:00 AM
$200,000 has been invested back into the community thanks to the Morden Community Thrift Shop’s annual fall giving campaign.
$20,000 had already been granted to the Morden Legion back in August for emergency repairs to Legion House 1, but the remaining $180,000 was given out to various organizations on Monday.
“It’s our community that keeps us going. It’s the community that supplies us with everything that we sell. Putting it back in the community, it’s for the better of everybody. We all benefit from what we put back in,” said Kent Noel, President of the Morden Community Thrift Shop board of directors. “Whether it’s health, mental health (or) protection, it benefits everyone in our community.”
Noel added, and it is the community that keeps the thrift shop going by donating the items that are sold there. All of the grant money doled out on Monday was generated through sales at the shop – items like 25-cent cups and $2 jeans.
“It’s amazing how it adds up…we save a lot of pennies,” he said.
He credited the thrift shop’s group of volunteers for their dedication.
“We are like a family here and we treat our community like family as well. When you’re dealing with family, it’s pretty easy to make decisions.”
The full list of the fall grant recipients includes:
500 Stephen – $5,000.00 for new carpet tile
Boundary Trails Health Centre Foundation – $40,000 for a mini-C arm that gives lower radiation than regular x-rays and OR/Diagnostics equipment
Many Hands Resource Center – $8,000 for food supplies and vouchers
Menzies Medical Centre – $30,000 for medical equipment
Morden Community Handivan – $10,000 to help with purchasing a new van
Morden Fire & Rescue – $10,000 to help with the expansion to the Fire Hall
Morden Police Service – $14,000 for upgrading their training equipment
Pembina Counselling Center – $10,000 for program/counselling assistance
Pembina Valley Humane Society – $5,000 to go towards the purchase of a new van
Pembina Valley Pregnancy Care – $3,000 for support services
STARS Ambulance Service – $40,000
Youth for Christ – $5000 for programming, the support staff and counseling
October 28th – 1st Early Bird Draw for $1,000 CASH –
WINNER: KEN HILDEBRAND (0669194)
November 23rd – 2nd Early Bird Draw for $1,000 CASH –
WINNER: CINDY HUNTER (0705152)
December 21st – 3rd Early Bird Draw for $1,000 CASH –
WINNER: JESSICA GIONET (0716734)
Written by Chris Sumner Monday, Oct 31 2022, 4:03 AM
Friday night Morden’s Access Event Centre hosted the return of the Boundary Trails Health Centre (BTHC) Foundation “Building for the Future” fundraising gala, or as mentioned from the stage several times during the evening, perhaps it should now be called the “Future is Now” gala.
Just over a week ago site work began on the long in development expansion of BTHC, and that had a positive hum running through the room all night.
Foundation Chair Ben Friesen noted, since that event, it has been nothing but positive encouragement shared with the board.
“Everybody says ‘way to go’, and not that we take all the credit for (it), but everybody involved in this,” said Friesen Friday evening. “It’s been a long procedure. There’s many people that have done a lot of work to get it to this point, and you meet people, and they talk about it and that’s great. We want to make sure we get it out to the public even more in the next couple of weeks, in the next couple months, and then when the equipment moves in there, and they start digging here in another week or so, that should just add more excitement to it.”
The BTHC Foundation has set a fundraising goal of $10 million for the project, with $1 million of that already raised through a donation from the Morden Community Thrift Store. Meanwhile, a $750,000 donation by Colleen and her late husband Bill Lyne will support the construction of a cardiography suite at the hospital.
“We have set a $10 million goal, the government didn’t demand this from us,” explained Friesen. “We, in partnership with them, have had many long discussions and meetings, and the board came up with a number of $10 million of new money that we want to raise for this project. We have some other money that’s already in place, and there will be a lot of other equipment needs, we know, but our support from the Foundation is $10 million of new money, community raised.”
Friesen described the figure as a “daunting” one, but has no doubt the communities that rely on the services of BTHC will come together to help the Foundation raise that total.
“The board is representatives of all the different municipalities and towns and cities, and we just all feel that this community is willing to do that,” he noted. “We really feel the support is there, and we know we have to do our work, but the board has just bought into it.”
Friesen also reflected on what it means to finally be at this point of a journey more than a decade in the making.
“I happened to have been on this board ten years ago when we did work on this, and then things got really slowed down, and then things started picking up again,” he said. “We’re just really excited it’s finally happening, we know what’s happening, and that’s why I have to give credit to Jane Curtis (Southern Health-Sante Sud C.E.O.) and Cameron Friesen (Morden-Winkler M.L.A). They did a lot of pushing to make sure we got this groundbreaking done before the gala event tonight. They felt it was very crucial for us, and of course we felt it was very crucial, and we’re just we’re just really happy to finally see it.”
Friesen stressed, the Foundation board is by no means relaxing after all the good news of late, and will be working very hard on meeting that $10 million fundraising goal.
CFAM Radio 950 Morning Show Co-Host Chris Sumner MC’d Friday’s gala, and you can listen to his conversation with Ben Friesen HERE.
Written by Robyn Wiebe Saturday, Oct 22 2022, 5:00 AM
On the heels of the Boundary Trails Health Centre expansion project, the BTHC Foundation received a burst of funding towards their $10 million fundraising goal to support it.
BTHC Foundation Chair Ben Friesen expressed his feelings about the donation from the Morden Community Thrift Store.
“When we came up with $10 million is what we jointly, as a board, decided to raise for this project, we were working with the Morden Thrift Store prior that already, and we didn’t know exactly what the amount would be, but then we did have a meeting with them, and they informed us they were open to give us that first $1,000,000 cheque. That was just fantastic, that’s 10% of what we start with. Everybody always sees the Thrift Store there, but nobody really knows how huge a part of the community it is and that they contribute such a large amount to the community.”
Friesen shared the steps going forward towards the remaining portion of the goal.
“We know it’s a big target and we’re obviously also going to a very large community. We’re not just working with the Morden/Winkler/Stanley area. We are approaching some 25-30 different municipalities. We feel like all of them will contribute in some fashion and then, of course, we’re going to some businesses, and then we have specialized people like Colleen and Bill Lyne, who just to come up with $750,000 for the Cardiography Suite, I mean, it’s fantastic. There probably are more people and more businesses around in the community that are looking to do that kind of thing, and we’ll try to find them.”
MCTS Chairperson Kent Noel said 5 years ago they had planned to build their own building with funds they had set aside, but those plans changed, and they had to decide what to do with that money.
“With the funds that they had, they sat down and brainstormed the idea, ‘What can we use this money for?’ and then, ‘There’s going to be a hospital expansion.’ and they put that together for when it happens. It’s about five years in the making. We’re very proud to be able to do this. It’s an honour for us.”
Noel said the announcement has changed that atmosphere in the Thrift Store.
“From the people that walk through the door from our customers, for everyone that walks through the door for volunteering in the last five years, even prior of that, it’s an uplifting experience for everybody, and then to be able to do this. Since I announced on Tuesday, when we found out that this is actually happening, we’re doing it right now, smiles and the whole mood in the store is so much different than it was. It was good before, but now everybody’s happy that something we’ve planned on, like this, is is finally coming through. It’s five years in the making, and we’re just happier than we can be, to be able to do this right now.”
Friesen also acknowledged a $750, 000 donation was also given to the fund from the late Bill Lyne and his widow Colleen. Bill passed away last year, and Colleen was not well enough to attend Thursday’s event.
