The Old Fashioned Community Auction helped Southwest Seniors Housing Inc. inch closer to its $2 million fundraising goal.
Held at the Legion Hall on November 29, the event, which included live, rainbow and silent auctions as well as a pie and bake sale, was the hub of action on the Friday evening. The event was packed and for about three hours, Wright’s Auction Service called for bids, while the participants called back. In the end, everything tallied more than $48,000 for the cause.
“It was just a wonderful evening,” said committee member George Heide as soon as the auction ended. “Everyone had a lot of fun and we were able to raise a lot of money for our project.”
Where the crops of private farmers rightfully took most of the attention during the disaster known as the fall of 2019, a pair of more philanthropic harvests were also stalled, seemingly until the spring of 2020.
For more than 20 years, there has been an annual crop for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank in the area. The Boissevain, Morton, Whitewater Growing Project has been doing seeding and harvest to help the world’s needy every year, most recently on land rented from the Fraser family near Fairfax. This year, the rain and snow put a strain on all producers in the area, making the process of getting crops off onerous and in some cases impossible. What of the growing project?
Hopes are a new addition to the lineup will put a renewed bang into the Boissevain & District Chamber of Commerce’s annual Christmas promotion.
There will be draws for Chamber Bucks and there will be a visit by Santa, as there is every Yuletide season. This year, however, a new idea for Boissevain, but an established one by the sponsor, will be coming – a Christmas Tree Auction.
Sheri Dickinson, who handles memberships and organizes the Christmas promotion for the Chamber, said the concept is the brainchild of Boundary Co-op. They had previously held the event in Deloraine and it worked well. The Co-op has donated 20 trees to Boissevain School, and each class is currently diligently working on decorating them. The idea is for each one to be auctioned off at the Legion Hall on December 5. Dickinson said in Deloraine, they followed themes, with one done as a big Santa Claus.
The Boissevain and Morton Foundation made an important contribution to the community, with a special 2020 on the way.
The Foundation made its disbursements on Thursday evening, November 14 at the Boissevain Curling Club. This year, the total of interest donated through designated and undesignated grants came to $117,265. The designated grants are ones where the donors choose the recipients. Undesignated see the Foundation Board meeting and making decisions from the many applications from worthy community groups. At one time earlier in its history, the breakdown was 75/25% in favour of designated grants. However, this year, the undesignated was at $57,000, while the designated came to $53,600. Executive Director Raylene Conway-Smith said since the special program Endow Manitoba started, it has made more money available for board-directed granting.
