ROC (Recreation Opportunities for Children) Eastman aims to provide opportunities for children to explore different activities and find their passions.
Executive Director Moni Loewen and her team serve families from southeastern Manitoba and beyond, stretching from Lac du Bonnet to the U.S. border.
Looking back on this year, pandemic restrictions and rising costs placed barriers on their mission.
With restrictions still around at the beginning of 2022, many were still trying to foster relationships through technology.
“There were many times where meeting in person, going to our families’ homes was tricky. Trying to do some of those really in-depth conversations over digital technology and video chats, some families dove into that and it was all good. Some families, not so great, so we definitely shifted how we did things,” Loewen said.
However, this redirection led them to a realization.
“We did a lot online, texting and communicating that way and we really shifted to home-based recreation more than we had in the past. What's really neat is that it worked really, really well for many of our families. Joining community recreation programs is challenging at the best of times for many, so it definitely opened up our eyes to continue offering more-home based recreation,” Loewen adds.
Increasing costs have become a hurdle when providing opportunities, especially with many families residing in rural Manitoba as it limits accessibility to activities.
“We're up in Pine Falls, we're out in Sprague, we're out in Vassar. There's no question that options can be very slim, but we will work our tails off,” Loewen said. “How do we meet this particular need through an activity that only happens an hour away from our home? There's a lot of creativity to stretch the dollars, but it's tough,”
On top of accessibility, there is a budget for each child, and Loewen adds that the cost of fuel alone "can make an activity cost prohibitive.”
Over the past year, they faced multiple relocations. They had to carry thousands of books from one location to the next but found help from the community.
“Huge kudos to our friends at Swift and Unger Meats and Feeds because they brought in crews. I literally lost sleep thinking about asking people again to help us move. We still have those wonderful business partners who are going to help us through it all,” Loewen said.
Despite the challenges, the past year brought ROC significant growth. With COVID grants that were introduced, Loewen and her team were able to create connections with 400 new kids throughout the pandemic.
In addition to new relationships, the lifting of restrictions allowed them to finally host in-person events and fundraisers such as the Cyclathon and 50/50 raffle. Loewen adds that they also hired new staff for fundraising.
Looking ahead to 2023, they look forward to continuing to connect with the community, hosting events, and they hope to have their first in-person book sale at the end of January.
“Our volunteers have been working their tails off to get things organized and sorted on the shelves. We will have more books on the shelves than we've had previously,” Loewen said. “We'll just keep plugging away at what we do and I expect we will be working on maybe some new fun ideas too.”
With files from Dave Anthony.