It was a two-for-one deal that prompted the start of the Kent-Harrison Foundation 25 years ago.
At that time, in 1994, foundations were popping up around the Lower Mainland as a way to fund local organizations and charitable causes. The Vancouver Foundation made those endeavours even more appealing for small communities.
“The Vancouver Foundation was offering at that time that for every dollar that the town put towards the Kent-Harrison Foundation, they would double it,” Judy Croft, current treasurer for the Kent-Harrison Foundation, said.
Not long after, 27 different residents and organizations in Agassiz and Harrison had collected $85,000. The Vancouver Foundation’s additional contribution brought that number up to $190,000.
For the last 25 years, Agassiz and Harrison community groups have been funded from the proceeds of that initial investment. In that time, more than $170,000 has been given out to non-profit organizations from the interest earned on that initial investment and other donations from places like the District of Kent.
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“This year, we had a $2,000 donation from a local person that really liked the idea that we don’t go into the principal,” Croft said. That $2,000 donation was the first time money had been added to the principal since the Kent-Harrison Foundation started.
For the last three or four years, the foundation has set aside $10,000 to support grants for local organizations that are working in arts and culture, education, health and welfare, recreation and environment, seniors or youth and families. Applications are for specific projects the groups want to undertake — including some projects that spark a little laugh.
“When they community garden started up here in Agassiz, they needed a toilet,” Croft said. “And so they asked us for a toilet.”
Some projects are not so amusing — for the last several years the foundation has supported a grief camp called Camp Skylark near Hope to fund between three and five local kids who had lost a family member — and others are just plain practical.
“We buy baseballs for the Agassiz Baseball Association,” Croft said. “Every year they’ve asked for 25 dozen, so we give them a few hundred dollars for that.”
Seniors connecting with teens receive funding, as does the swim club, the Harrison Festival, the Kent-Harrison Arts Council and the Agassiz-Harrison Historical Society. (They usually ask for funding so they can upgrade their building.)
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But it’s not just community groups that have benefited from the foundation’s existence in the last 25 years. High school students in Agassiz and Harrison are eligible for $500 bursaries thanks to residents who had provided endowment funds as a continuing legacy for their family.
Each year, four bursaries from these endowment funds are available to graduating students. Some come with certain stipulations — Don Ramsay bursary recipients must live in Harrison Hot Springs, recipients of another bursary must be going to the Justice Institute — while others are available to everyone.
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Since 2004, the foundation has given out 42 different bursaries, which exemplifies what Croft likes about the foundation.
“It’s a neat place to volunteer with, because basically all we do is give out money,” Croft said.
Giving out money is the basis of the foundation, and is the one thing that has never changed in the foundation’s 25 years. The current chair of the foundation hopes it won’t change in the future either.
“You give back to your community, and that’s what it is in a nutshell,” Robby Robertson said.
You can see the results, he said, when people watch a slideshow of the project’s the foundation has funded.
“They stand there and they watch for a while, and they say, ‘You guys do a lot of things here.’”
For the future, Robertson said he wants to see the foundation enlarge its investment so it could do a little more.
A burger and brew fundraiser will be held at the Sasquatch Inn on April 26, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., to celebrate the foundation’s 25th anniversary. The event will also feature a silent auction, 50/50 draw and a wine basket.
grace.kennedy@ahobserver.com
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