Submitted by the Selkirk & District Community Foundation
We don’t have enough fingers and toes to count the ways 2020 was altered by COVID-19, but the Selkirk and District Community Foundation is thankful the pandemic didn’t change the kindness and caring local people have every single year.
Lewis Wasel, founding president of the SDCF, isn’t surprised.
“We have a lot of good people there who are very giving and will give in good times or tough times,” Wasel said.
Wasel left Selkirk 20 years ago and has called Alberta home since then. But that hasn’t stopped him from donating to the Foundation and he was among the 175 smart and caring donors who gave during the Endow Manitoba Giving Challenge from Nov. 9 to 15.
Over the course of seven days at total of $82,696 was donated to the Foundation. The seven-day challenge replaced the traditional 24-hour giving challenge to allow people to donate in a safe way during COVID.
Aaron Martyniw, chair of the Foundation, said he’s learned to never be surprised by the community support but he can’t help but often be rendered near speechless by it.“It’s something that always amazes me, but at the same time it doesn’t.
These are tough times that we’re living in and yet our donors show up and support in such a fantastic way,” Martyniw said.“There aren’t enough superlatives to express our gratitude.”
Donors gave $78,696 and the Province of Manitoba and The Winnipeg Foundation added 4,000 stretching dollars.
Since 2014, when the 24-Hour Giving Challenge began, people have donated a total of $385,473 on that day, and this year, during that week.
For Wasel, the Foundation will always be near and dear to his heart. He noted last month’s passing of fellow founding member Elmer Kuber, and praised his friend for the role he played in getting the Foundation off the ground, calling Kuber “a tower of strength in the founding of the Foundation”.
“I was the founding president for the first five years and that foundation meant a lot to me. I thought it was a really great community effort, people coming together to do something good for the whole community,” he said.
“I look back fondly on the time I had in Selkirk and it’s something that I’m proud of. The subsequent boards have taken the foundation to new heights and I’m really glad to see that too.”
