By Thia James

PA Lions Club delivers Operation Red Nose funds to local groups

Mar 12, 2014 | 6:38 AM

The Prince Albert Lions Club presented cheques to a number of youth-oriented organizations and groups in the city, and the funds it awarded were all raised through the recent Operation Red Nose campaign.

On Monday, the Lions Club selected the recipients from 20 applicants. The funds raised are directed towards youth-oriented organizations and programs in the city.

This past December, the Operation Red Nose campaign’s volunteers provided Prince Albert residents with a safe alternative for getting home from parties. If someone had too much to drink, volunteers would drive to their location, take them and their car home.

The Operation Red Nose funding recipient selections were made by a committee comprised of Lions Club members and volunteers that helped with Operation Red Nose, according to Jim Wilm, chairman of the Operation Red Nose campaign.

“We wanted to make sure that whoever we targeted, that … it would reach the largest amount of assistance in the community. And naturally, because the schools, some of them had specific programs, but we convinced them that we wanted it to be targeted, so that the whole school benefitted, not just a classroom, or not just a specific item in the school, but that the entire school would benefit,” Wilm said.

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And among the recipients were:

-Vincent Massey School for its book program,
-W.F.A. Turgeon School, Riverside Community School and W.J. Berezowksy School for their school lunch programs,
-The Calvary United Church youth program,
-Weirdale minor sports, which encompasses Northern communities up to Christopher Lake.

In all, $3,444.65 was divided among the recipients.

Wilm said a lot of individual sporting organizations applied for the funds from the 2013 Operation Red Nose campaign.

“Yes, and every one of them were worthy in their own right, but what we wanted to make sure was that we targeted. We were going to give money, that … [the] benefits could extend to as many as possible,” he said.

“And that’s why some of the school programs were certainly ones that … we leaned to. Especially the Vincent Massey one, because right now, under Lions International, the reading program is part of our Lions International project.”

The consensus in favour of the recipients was unanimous among the 12 members of the Lions Club board in Prince Albert.

“What we did, we took them all and we each individually went through them and said ‘OK, which ones individually … would be one that I would support?’ And what happened, like that Vincent School one, whatever, you know, the determination from the group that we had, it was at the top. It was unanimous by everybody.”

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames