By Marc Zienkiewicz
Coreen Pusiewich donates a cheque for $1,000 to Bob Draward of the Lac du Bonnet Charitable Foundation while president Cliff Zarecki looks on.
The Lac du Bonnet Charitable Foundation got a major and much-welcome boost last week when $26,000 was donated to the fund in a single afternoon.
Coreen Pusiewich of Lac du Bonnet’s Royal Bank donated $1,000 to the foundation after she received the bank’s Regional President’s Community Leadership Award. Along with the award, Pusiewich was allowed to donate $1,000 to her charity of choice. “This is such a wonderful cause,” she said of the foundation. “I’m happy to help out.” Pusiewich’s presentation was made during the foundation’s March 13 meeting.
At the same meeting, foundation chairman Mauri Rutherford presented a check for $25,000 from the Lac du Bonnet Wildlife Association, much to the surprise of those present. “What a huge milestone for the foundation — it was totally unexpected,” foundation president Cliff Zarecki said. He noted the sizeable contribution has the foundation’s board seriously thinking about developing a formal grant application process, with the first grants to conceivably be given out in 2010. Zarecki added that an additional $25,000 in promised donations are still expected, and the foundation could be up to $100,000 by the end of the summer.
It now sits at around $42,000, after more than $2,000 was donated by Carly Zarecki and Amanda Gooding this week, who raised pledges and had their hair cut to make wigs for cancer patients March 18.
“The board has tentatively talked about giving out the first grants once we hit $100,000, but no final decision has been made on that,” he added.
The foundation is designed to pool donations and in turn facilitate community philanthropy. Money is saved in an account and only the interest generated is used to fund community projects.
The foundation was officially launched in November. Anyone interested in donating can visit lacdubonnetfoundation.ca