With Pay It Forward May nearing the halfway mark, the Winkler Community Foundation (WCF) took time on Wednesday to get their hands dirty and lend a hand at the Winkler Centennial Library. Pay It Forward May is an initiative by the Winkler and Morden Area Foundations to change the community one good deed at a time.
WCF Board Member Barb Neufeld explained.
"We're here at the library in what is going to be their new outdoor space and we are helping to get it ready for summer by raking some of the beds and we're going to put together some patio furniture and we're going to wash some windows. And this is being done by the Board of Directors as our Pay It Forward Act for Pay It Forward May."
Neufeld said they are hearing lots of reports of people sharing food but there are other things happening like the Bunker organizing a townwide clean up, collecting trash revealed after the snow melts and getting the community ready for summer.
She had an opportunity to inspire students in a local school.
"I went to go talk to a group of kindergarten kids about what it means to be a foundation and to pay it forward. And those kids had great ideas about how they could pay it forward: by being friendly on the playground, by helping their moms and dads do chores without being asked, by giving a friend a hug. So, they had lots of great ideas. It goes anywhere from bringing somebody a smile cookie to a townwide clean up. "
Winkler Centennial Library Branch Admin Jess Martens expressed her gratitude for the WCF's act of kindness.
"Oh, we are very grateful. The library, we're all about community and being able to participate in the community however we possibly can, is always fantastic. We're always happy to receive any help and always happy to give it back to the community. It is kind of what the library is all about. We love the community, we're always happy to help."
The work of the WCF is a big step towards finishing off the work that started a year ago in the new space, made possible by the community.
"Thanks to some very generous donations and grants that we got from various community organizations, one of which was the Winkler Community Foundation, we were able to build all of this in a year. So we've got the pergolas, the inner fence area, the shed, the brickwork, everything. The only thing you didn't get done last year was planting. So, that's going to be the focus for this year; actually, turning this lovely space into an actual garden and having the Winkler Community Foundation help with that is amazing."
