Kenora & Lake of the Woods Community Foundation
Check out some of the projects and recipients of KLWCF grants!
For years, generous donors like “Miss Cookie” Carol Wicks helped give essential support to people in our community. A former teacher in Kenora from 1968 to 2003, Miss Cookie established the “Miss Cookie” – Carol Wicks Bursary Fund for Beaver Brea Secondary School graduates and the Eric, Dorothea, and Carol (Cookie) Wicks Fund for Community.
Miss Cookie has been a consistent contributor to KLWCF over the years, with her latest contributions totalling $20,000. Thank you, Miss Cookie!
In 2006, the Kenora and Lake of the Woods Regional Community Foundation and charity Triple P.L.A.Y. (Positive Leisure Activities for Youth) created an endowment fund that has helped kids in need participate in sports and leisure ever since.
Triple P.L.A.Y.’s latest contribution of $30,000 brought the fund’s value to $165,000. Your donation helps give Kenora kids a chance to play and grow.
St. John Paul received a great of $11,800 which was used towards The “Student Nourishment Program” which aims to level the playing field and set all students up for success by providing students with both breakfast and lunch, when needed. Although the micro goal of this project is to provide regular nourishment to students in need, this is really in the context of a much larger goal in which SJS aims to position all students for success in school and in life. The greatest impact this program has is for families and children to know that they’re apart of a caring community and that they are never alone.
The ChiKeyWis Arena received a community fund grant of $5,800 as they were looking to fund their line-painter project.
This project will ensure the management/staff and ice technicians can effectively and efficiently make ice, every year. By owning the line painter, the ChiKeyWis Arena can set their own schedule and make ice for the members of the community, without having to wait in line to rent one from another Arena in the region. Many Indigenous communities cannot ‘make ice’ because their local population does not have resources, tools, or experience to do so. This one purchase could set in motion, a chain effect that is of benefit to many. Sports and recreation have many positive impacts including bringing people together and providing opportunities for social interaction, empowering, and inspiring community members and helping improve mental health.
Projects like this one, help our communities build forever together.
The Muse received a grant of $14,500 to help present Ruth Cuthand’s Beads of Truth Exhibit from September to November 2021.
The Muse says “BEADS OF TRUTH brings a greater awareness to the history of diseases which devastated First Nations peoples upon contact with European settlers. It also brings to light specific historical campaigns to subjugate Indigenous peoples, addresses current struggles of poor conditions for those living on First Nation reserves, and acknowledges the intergenerational trauma inherited by subsequent generations through today.”
Their goal was to increase public awareness of the Arts Centre and with the grant, it was used to cover costs related to the presentation of this exhibition in Kenora. The Muse also states “the exhibition became a catalyst for conversations around reconciliation.”
Mt. Evergreen received a grant of $15,000 to assist the collaboration with local Indigenous, Public, and Catholic schools in introducing children to the experience of skiing. To provide safe ski equipment that is accessible to large groups of students within our school communities as well as large groups visiting our community.
The arts community continued to experience the impacts of COVID-19. This grant of $7,500 will assist with continuing the momentum of inviting people into artists’ studios and homes to learn, share and experience the arts such as music, pottery, writing, and more.
During the height of COVID-19, a grant of $9,000 assisted with the cost of giving students some in person graduation experience / memory which they were able to share with friends, family, anyone who wished to see them and the community as a whole. This included having a drive by grad ceremony on the Kenora waterfront.
A grant of $3,000 helped assist in providing the town of Sioux Narrows with free concerts and musical activities for all ages as part of the Sioux Narrows Arts Festival.
A grant of $1,500 to Science North assisted in costs required to offer summer science day camps in Kenora for kids aged 4-14 years. The goal of the camps were to make science fun and accessible to everyone. Kids were able to learn, conduct experiments, and learn things that with a larger classroom just weren’t possible. For example, one day kids learned how to make their own bubble solution, learned about floating cities and fire safety, the five senses, etc.