Kids in the Tri-Cities suffering from brain injuries may be able to get help from the Coquitlam Foundation.
This week, the Coquitlam Foundation and the Michael Coss Foundation announced the establishment of a fund to help brain-injured children. Named in honour of Coquitlam resident Michael Coss, the fund will be managed by the Coquitlam Foundation.
Coss suffered a severe brain injury in a car accident in 2006 and awoke from a six-month coma after receiving hyperbaric oxygenation therapy, a treatment that isn't covered by the provincial medical services plan.
"Without these treatments, Michael would not be here today, I guarantee you," said Michael's father, Bob Coss who, with his wife, moved to Coquitlam from Quebec City after his son's accident.
The new fund will provide financial support for a broad range of treatment options that may otherwise not be available to a child suffering from a brain injury. Priority will be given children who are found to be most likely to benefit from alternate therapies, and whose family or support team do not have the means for such treatments. The fund will be seeded with an initial donation of $6,000.
Coss said the family decided to establish the fund with the Coquitlam Foundation to allow donors to take advantage of its official charitable status. "We will certainly be able to help children, and that's really the main reason," he said. "There are so many families who can benefit from that."
Children from the Tri-Cities will be given preference for support but if someone from outside the community can also benefit if there are no local kids who are in need of or eligible for support.
The Coquitlam Foundation manages a portfolio worth $2.3 million, comprising 20 donor-advised and nine foundation-directed funds. Last year, the foundation distributed more than $90,000 in grants, scholarships and bursaries.
Donations to the Michael Coss Brain Injury Fund or any other Coquitlam Foundation fund can be sent c/o P.O. Box 2, 1207 Pinetree Way, Coquitlam, B.C., Canada, V3B 7Y3, or at www.coquitlamfoundation.com.
