We are in the countdown to the 43rd annual Weyburn Communithon, being held at the Weyburn Legion on October 25th from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., featuring live performances throughout the day and dozens of volunteers helping to raise funds for eight community agencies. One of those agencies is the Weyburn Branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association.
CMHA Weyburn's Program Director, Tasha Collins said the funds from the annual telethon have helped over the years to support their social and recreational programming.
"We do have funding that goes towards our vocational programs, funding that goes towards our youth programs, and some funding that goes towards social and recreational programming. However, the funds from the Communithon event go into backfilling the social and recreational programming," she explained. "So without that funding, that program really would take a big hit."
Collins said this includes being able to provide an element to CMHA Weyburn's social and recreational programs that are 'fun' things people enjoy, which some may take for granted.
"It's the things that we like to do, whether it's playing cards, whether it's bowling, whether it's going to shoot pool, maybe it's doing an art project," she noted. "Those things that we may be able to afford to do in our social time, some other people may not be able to. So those are the types of things these monies go towards helping us provide that within our community, to anybody who wants to use our service and attend those programs."
She said their branch offers programs not everyone may be aware of, such as their vocational program, which gives work experience through a variety of odd jobs, including going out to shovel snow, raking, and taking loads to the landfill.
"We do suicide alertness for everyone. We do partner to offer ASSIST within our programs," she shared. "We partner with the SJHL and do the Talk Today program with the Weyburn Red Wings and the Estevan Bruins. There are so many things that are available through our branch and the funding that we received through Communithon really helps to sustain a lot of those other programs. So we need to have that funding in order to have the social and recreational programming, but because we have that funding for those programs, we're able to allocate other funds to specific things as well."
Collins said their programming is open to anyone.
"A person does not have to have a diagnosed mental illness to attend our programming," she said. "We all live with things that affect our mental health. Historically, yes, we would get referrals from the health authority and maybe other different community agencies, however, people can self-refer, so if somebody is interested in just finding a place to belong, having some engagement, having a place where you can go and just be yourself and engage in different activities and maybe something that aligns with your interests, certainly a person could come by and we'd find a way to get them fit into our programming."
With numerous affiliated and non-affiliated CMHA branches across the province, she emphasized, "any money raised here and allocated to our branch stays here and is used within our community to serve the people that we serve in our community. So it really does stay local."
While the eight community agencies joining forces to fundraiser in one day includes everyone taking a turn volunteering, Collins added she enjoys putting in extra volunteer hours at Communithon because it's not only a chance for her to help out her organization, but seven others as well.
"That's why I allocate more hours and sit on a couple of other committees. I want to be able to benefit other agencies in the community."
The other community agencies that will benefit from the annual telethon are Big Brothers Big Sisters Weyburn, the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, the Weyburn Care-A-Van Society, Envision Counselling & Support Centre, Inclusion Weyburn, Southeast Advocates, and Spinal Cord Injury Saskatchewan.
Follow the Weyburn Communithon on Facebook, and find out more on the Communithon website.