Reaching out

Quinte Children’s Fund’s Bobbi Vandenberg with her daughter Jennifer at the ribbon cutting ceremony in Picton on Monday.

Provincial funds enable foundation to extend services to the County

The Vital Signs report, compiled by the County Community Foundation more than year ago, was a wake-up call for this community. Among its disturbing findings was the wide gap between rich and poor in Prince Edward County.

When basics of life, including getting enough to eat in a day, become a struggle, it is often children who suffer most. Serving the needs of our most vulnerable children is the purpose of the Quinte Children’s Foundation (QCF).

QCF raises funds to enable high risk and disadvantaged kids to participate in camp, sports and recreation. They also fund programs and services aimed at providing parental resources and warm winter clothing.

The foundation was formed after the amalgamation of Children’s Aid Societies in Northumberland and Hastings. When Prince Edward County joined Highland Shores CAS in 2012, the foundation lacked the resources to extend its reach into the County.

That changed this week with the announcement of an Ontario Trillium Foundation grant for $150,000 over two years.

Ribbon cutting: (L-R) Connie Reid, QCF executive director; John Blake,Trillium Foundation volunteer; Ken Schmidt, QCF Chair; MPP Todd Smith; Mark Kartusch, Highland Shores executive director; and Bobbi Vandenberg, QCF staffperson for Prince Edward County.

“We didn’t have the funds to do what we wanted to do in the County,” says Ken Schmidt, chair of QCF. “As the needs expanded, we weren’t able to keep up. We wanted to come in this community—we just weren’t able to.

“This Trillium funding has allowed us to speed up this process of expansion. We are able to hire local people that will act locally in the community.”

Both QCF and Highland Shores are eager to extend its programs and services into the County, and believe this community will be receptive to their mission and purpose.

“One of the things I am most excited about is to have the opportunity to ensure that children have the same access to resources regardless of geography,” says Mark Kartusch, executive director, Highland Shores CAS. “We’ve relied on the foundation for things like camps and other activities. This hasn’t always been available in Prince Edward. Now they will be.”

Kartusch adds that the QCF will be looking for a complementary role—a way it can fit in amid other organizations with a similar purposes.

“We are not going in to make a big giant footprint in the County—there are many good organizations already at work in this community. We are looking for places where there are gaps –we will work to try and fill it.”

Kartusch says Highland Shores has enjoyed great support for its purple ribbon campaign, in addition to an ever-popular angel tree fundraiser at Christmastime and expects similar support to the Quinte Children’s Foundation for the role it seeks to serve in this community.