OLDS — Representatives of Nu2U, the town-owned thrift store, presented $8,000 worth of grants ($2,000 each) to four community organizations last week.
Those organizations are the Community Learning Campus, the Mountain View Emergency Shelter Society, the Olds & District Hospice Society, and the Youth Empowerment and Support program.
Nu2U manager Gayle Anderson said the store would have liked to have given out more money to local organizations, but income has been down because the number of customers allowed in the building at any one time has been limited due to pandemic restrictions.
Community Learning Campus (CLC)
The CLC is a joint operation of Olds College and École Olds High School.
CLC recreational assistant M.J. Vergara described the donation they received as “absolutely amazing.”
“We’re really grateful for this (money) because this actually allowed us to support our pickleball community members, providing them with new pickleball nets, which we’ve never actually had,” she said.
“We’ve been using the badminton nets or borrowing from different gyms. So this is a really awesome opportunity for us to order the right equipment for them. They were so grateful.”
Vergara said the money enabled programmers to buy seven pickleball nets.
The pickleball program runs year-round at the CLC. Thirty to 40 people participate in each session, most of whom are seniors who live in Olds and area.
Olds & District Hospice Society (ODHS)
Hospice care focuses on making a person’s end of life journey as comforting as possible.
ODHS executive director Mary Smith said their grant will go toward funding the operations side of the society.
She said the cash comes at a "crucial time” for the society because it’s hard to raise funds for that part of the organization.
The ODHS currently runs two hospice suites at the Seasons Encore facility. They also serve people who live at home and in the hospital.
Smith said there’s been a waiting list to get into the two ODHS hospice suites since February.
“We’ve served four times the amount of hospice clients this year already than any other year,” Smith said.
Demand is so strong that Smith said the ODHS is considering setting up at least one more hospice suite next year, likely in Didsbury.
"(We’re) just looking at our options, how we can do it affordably to support the most people.”
“Our programs are expanding. We have a Nav-CARE program that helps people with a chronic illness or a terminal illness who are feeling isolated at home. You can see in COVID times that that need really needs to be filled,” Smith said.
“It’s so important, we’re so grateful, because it allows us to serve those clients and it makes a huge difference in their lives,” she added.
Youth Empowerment Support (YES) Program
The YES program is a regional mental health program for youth.
Raelynn Notley, its mental health capacity building program manager, said their share of the money will be used to buy materials to support programming in Olds -- things like the crafts, materials and supplies for kids' activities.
“We’re a mental health capacity building project. So what that means is that we work with every student in the community of Olds – we're division-wide, but this grant was specifically to be used in Olds,” Notley said.
"We offer universal mental health programming into all of the classrooms on several occasions to lay the foundation for good mental health and wellness.
“And then we also work with youth who are referred to the program at lunch and after school on Fridays off of school to provide students who need a little extra support the opportunity to come take part in certain events.
“We match students with other kids who maybe need help with friendship skills, who maybe have a little bit of social anxiety, who may not necessarily have any other activities that they’re involved in because they’re not necessarily sports kids. We try and fill the gap for everybody.”
Notley said YES has operated in Olds for nearly 14 years now.
She joined the other recipients in expressing gratitude Nu2U for the money, saying it “really does go a long way.”
"When the government rolls back, (the) community rolls in, so I really do appreciate it, so thank you very much,” Notley said.
Mountain View Emergency Shelter Society president Joe Carignan said they'll use their grant internally.
"We will use the money to increase our outreach worker's hours," he wrote in an email. "She has been very busy and our stats are up over 250 per cent.".
