The Altona and Area Family Resource Centre (AAFRC) is one of the final recipients of an Xplore Rural Connections contest $1,000 prize.
Earlier this month, via PembinaValleyOnline, you had the opportunity to nominate a non-profit doing amazing things. Selected organizations received $1,000 to continue that great work, including the most recent recipient the Altona and Area Family Resource Centre
"It's huge," stated the Centre's Nina Edbom-Kehler on hearing the news. "Any money we can get is just super, because being a non-profit, it's harder to find money for things, so it'll be put toward programming, and all of our programming is parent, child."
Edbom-Kehler noted they're finding, because the Centre offers programming for newborns to kindergarten age children, a lot of the kids participating now they haven't seen before, because the previous participants pre-pandemic are now in kindergarten.
"Some of them we're calling the COVID kids, that if they're the only child at home, they don't know how to interact with other families, and so we want to provide programming so they can get together. They can meet their potential classmates. Moms and dads can meet each other in the community, and just provide that safe place."
The Centre was nominated by Dana Bergman, who participated in AAFRC programming years ago as a parent with her daughter.
"Fifteen years ago, when our daughter participated in the Rock and Read (program), I would have never predicted I would be sitting on the board at this point," explained Bergman. "Even though our children are grown, this is still something that feels very meaningful to me. It's an opportunity for people to get involved at all ages, whether you are a young family, or a family with young children, whether you are a caregiver of a young child, and it doesn't matter what community you're in. I really appreciate the broad reach it has, and the impact it allows us to have. It's really powerful to be involved in something meaningful."
The $1,000 prize from Xplore will go toward the variety of programming AAFRC offers to families in the region.