Last week, United Way Pembina Valley held its 2024-2025 grant distribution ceremony, announcing that a total of over $110,000 would be distributed across local organizations and educational bursaries.
Levi Taylor, United Way Pembina Valley President, made the announcement before handing out the grants.
Campaign highlights
Taylor thanked the community support that United Way received over the course of the campaign, with initiatives like the 'Skate with Santa' event in Morden and Winkler, as well as the community barbeques done in collaboration with the Morden and Winkler Co-ops.
“Our crown jewel event is the 'Koats for Kids' program... [it] sees the Pembina Valley collect and redistribute gently used winter coats back into the community.” He said, “It’s not a program that gets a lot of credit or notoriety, although I think it should; it’s an important component of what the United Way does.”
He said that it is difficult to quantify how the program helps the community, as its focus is getting people coats and doesn’t assist financially, but emphasized that its value could not be overstated.
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The grants
Among the grants that were divvied up, it was announced that $7,500 would be made available in the form of educational bursaries to graduating students of NPC, GVC, and Morden Collegiate.
Another announcement that Taylor made was a $15,000 commitment made by the United Way to assist Genesis House in the building of the organization’s 25-unit transitional housing complex to be built in Winkler.
“Genesis House reached out to us to see if we would be willing to support, and our board unanimously supported this. It wasn’t a matter of whether or not we were going to support—it was how much can we support.”
Continue reading below for the full list of Grant Recipients, and for more information or to find out how you can get involved, visit the United Way Pembina Valley website.
2024-2025 Campaign grants
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500 Stephen Street Community Centre — $9,200 in support of community programming.
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Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Pembina Valley — $8,700 for mentoring programs.
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Cerebral Palsy Association of Manitoba — $1,500 for the local sledge hockey program.
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Child and Family Services of Central Manitoba Foundation — $6,800 in support of the Chance 2 Camp and Chance 2 Grow recreational financial aid programs for youth.
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Eden Health Care Services — $5,350 in support of the volunteer program.
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Gateway Resources — $7,650 to build an accessible ramp at the residential home.
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Many Hands Resource Centre — $10,000 towards a walk-in cooler for the food bank.
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Morden Activity Centre — $3,950 towards improvements to its security system.
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Morden Christmas Cheer Board — $7,300 towards the Christmas hamper program.
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Morden Community Handi-van — $3,500 towards a new vehicle.
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Morden Family Resource Centre — $3,450 towards rent/insurance expenses.
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Pembina Valley Counselling Services — $4,100 in support of the sliding fee scale as well as training of additional staff to meet growing demand.
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Pembina Valley Pregnancy Care Centre — $3,800 for pregnancy support services.
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Salem Home Foundation — $5,550 to support the director of community engagement position.
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Small Wonders Nursery School — $2,550 in support of extra childcare staff.
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Winkler and District Multipurpose Senior Centre — $4,150 in support of the volunteer coordinator position.
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Winkler Day Care — $6,250 towards a new furnace, air conditioner, and duct work.
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Winkler Family Resource Centre — $4,550 towards operational expenses.
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Youth for Christ Morden — $4,150 in support of free programming for at-risk youth.
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Scholarships and bursaries — $7,500 to graduates of GVC, NPC, and Morden Collegiate.
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Special donation — $15,000 to Genesis House for their transitional housing project.