The Killam Twice Nice Store/Society handed out $60,000 in grant funding to 20 different groups last Wednesday, April 10.
This is the second year the Society has opened up applications for funding to the community, and this year had more applications than recipients for the first time.
“We saw some new groups putting in applications,” says Society president Fran Coates. “And different groups, for us.”
She says this year, besides the grants to local churches and groups, the Society has developed three new $2,000 bursaries for all three high schools in the Flagstaff County area, with Central High Sedgewick Public School, Forestburg School, and Daysland School all receiving these funds.
Coates says the funds are intended for the ‘Most well-rounded student,’ not based on marks entirely, and that the selection process for the bursaries will be made by the teachers in each school.
This year the Society has also funded a number of Free Swim days at the Killam Aquatic Centre, including a New Year’s Swim, which have been very popular with local families, with one such day seeing over 100 families coming out.
Vice-President Janie Armstrong says, “We want to promote our local facilities; perhaps if families try out the pool during one of our free swim days, they’ll return and use the facility regularly.”
All funds are raised by sales at the Twice Nice Store in Killam, where volunteers sort, wash, and display gently used items for resale, from clothing to household goods and decor.
Included in this year’s grant funding were FIRST, FFCS, the Killam Hall Board, the Flagstaff Players, the Flagstaff Scottish Club, the Cyclones Swim Club, Spartans Volleyball Club, the Elite Basketball Club, the Killam Catholic Church, the Killam & District Healthcare Foundation, the Killam Municipal Library, the Killam Pentecostal Church, Knox United Church, the Killam Baptist Church, the Flagstaff 4-H District Beef Committee, Hardisty Lake Church Camp, and Parents for Fun in Flagstaff. Not present at the presentation Wednesday were additional recipients, the Flagstaff Kids Connection Daycare and the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.
Leslie Cholowsky
Editor