Money to reimburse gas expenses of volunteers who drive cancer patients to their treatments; a project to paint a canoe that will be placed in Queens Street plaza and turned into a garden; and a blitz to reduce litter from cigarette butts are amongst the five projects voted by Port Moody’s citizen advisory group to receive funding from the city’s community grant program.
Tuesday, city council’s finance committee added two more to the list, from the 24 applications that were vying for a piece of the program’s $18,000 allocation for this year.
The seven projects approved for funding by the finance committee are:
• Volunteer Cancer Drivers Society, which requested $2,000 to reimburse its drivers for minor expenses and gas;
• PoCoMo Meals on Wheels Society, which asked for $1,200 to help pay for food and supplies being delivered to Port Moody residents who can’t get out of their homes;
• Port Moody Ecological Society, which requested $1,700 to fund a community painting project of a canoe, to be donated to the city’s arts and culture committee for placement in the Queens Street plaza, where it will be used as a garden planter;
• ACCESS Youth Outreach Services, which will receive $6,500 of the $10,000 it requested to help pay for the operation of a shuttle bus that is used for outreach work and provide resources to at-risk youth two nights a week at “hot-spots” they frequent;
• Burrard Inlet Marine Enhancement Society, which requested $3,000 to be used towards a project to educate the public about the harm caused by cigarette butt litter, as well as distribute reusable pocket ashtrays along with placing special receptacles to collect those butts for recycling;
• Port Moody Seniors Friendship Society, which will get $2,500 of the $5,000 it requested to help finance a film about local activist, volunteer and centenarian Mary Anne Cooper;
• and Pacific Post Partum Support Society, which will get $1,000 to bolster its telephone support counselling service for new mothers and families coping with depression and anxiety.
Port Moody’s community grant program was established to provide financial assistance to community groups and non-profit organizations that contribute to the benefit and interests of the city’s residents and businesses, often for specific project.
In February, city council decided to let one of last year’s grant recipients, Share Family and Community Services, keep the $10,000 it had intended to spend to help buy a van for pickups and deliveries of donated items for its thrift shop on St. Johns Street, even though Share closed the shop. Instead, it will be able to use the money for other programs like its family resource and Tiny Bundles support for new moms that have been hobbled by reduced funding from the United Way.
