It was A Night to Remember for the 160 paying guests at the Creston-Kootenay Foundation’s second annual soiree at the Creston and District Community Complex on June 2. A crew of volunteers — band members, performers, bar tenders, servers, etc. — did much to make it so.
The event, co-hosted by the Friends of the Community Greenhouse, was held near the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the liner Titanic and one of its aims was to commemorate those who lost their lives in that tragic event.
The major objective, however, was to give those present an evening of fine food and entertainment. Following a sumptuous meal with all the trimmings there was music, most of it from times past, for dancing or just listening, by the Creston Community Band under Monte Anderson’s baton.
The music and dancing was interspersed by performances by local artists: vocalist Louise n’ha Ruby, monologist Kelly Mehrer and Christine Miller’s troupe of cotillion dancers.
A feature of the proceedings was the presentation of cheques to some of this year’s major grant recipients from the Creston-Kootenay Foundation.
Foundation president Larry Brierley handed out funds for auto-electric defibrillators to Rod Stewart of the Boswell Emergency Volunteers and Gary Hill of the Boswell Memorial Hall Society, while support for the Therapeutic Activation Program for Seniors (TAPS) was accepted by Serena Naeve of the Creston and District Community Resource Centre, and TAPS workers Bridget Currie and Terry Nowak. One of the foundation’s original directors, Peter Hepher, was presented with the organization’s volunteer of the year plaque.
Brierley noted that the organizations accepting grants that evening were among 14 non-profit community groups operating between Riondel and Yahk that together received $24,000 from the Foundation in 2012.
The Foundation exists to receive donations of cash, securities and other forms of wealth and to invest them in perpetuity to provide support for worthwhile community projects in the future.
The organization is registered with the Canada Revenue Agency. This authorizes it to issue tax-deductible receipts for donations. It also requires it to distribute a portion of its annual investment earnings in the form of grants to organizations such as those benefiting at the soiree.
In this way, the foundation builds up a fund to support community good works in years to come while at the same time helping organizations that are currently doing such works.
More about the organization, including how you can add your own support to the cause and choose where and how you wish your investment to be used, can be found at www.ckfoundation.com.
— CRESTON-KOOTENAY FOUNDATION