Several community initiatives are receiving a boost thanks to a series of recent grants.
Council approved 11 projects for funding during their last meeting of the summer, nine through the Community Grants Advisory Committee and a pair from the Environment and Climate Action Committee (ECAAC). The grants cover a range of topics, from food to sports, and arts to healthcare.
The Caring Circle Health and Wellness Society and Bowen Island Children’s Centre (BICC) were key recipients of the Community Grants, receiving $13,000 and $9,500 respectively. The Caring Circle’s amount will go toward staff costs, while BICC’s portion will go toward staff working with the Family Place resource program.
Baseball fans will be excited for a new addition to the Snug Cove Field, with $6,000 awarded to the Fastpitch League to purchase a new scoreboard. The board will be erected in the outfield and used for fastpitch, slow pitch, and little league games. SwimBowen Society was another physical activity group which received a grant, with $1,200 allotted for communications equipment, lifeguards, and a water pump.
It was a positive council meeting for the Bowen Island Resilient Community Housing (BIRCH) project. After receiving a pair of development variance permits earlier in the evening to assist with the future construction of the Miller Road apartment complex, they received $6,000 toward operational funding during grant allocations.
Another construction project was also included in the community grants, with $5,000 going toward Island Pacific School’s Colin Ruloff Community Field House. The structure is expected to ready for use this fall.
Arts and entertainment were included in the committee’s selections, including $2,000 for Bowfest. The traditional August festival will put the money toward musicians, equipment, rides, and other attractions. The Hearth Gallery also received $2,500 to hold an Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility conference.
A Community Grant was also awarded to the Seniors Keeping Young Society (SKY). The $2,889 will be used for recreational games and instructors.
ECAAC distributes their grants through the Sustainable Community Grant Program. The program’s overarching theme is to address climate change, and this year the committee selected food security as their main area of focus.
One of these $2,000 grants went to local group THRIVE Bowen, who were a past recipient of the same grant for a study on food resiliency and greenhouses. This time around THRIVE is planning to develop an app to track food supply and demand on the island. Their ultimate goal is to help connect producers and consumers of local food.
The other $2,000 grant will go to establishing an abattoir service on Bowen, allowing farmers to process meat on-island instead of having to go to the mainland. Local butcher Erik Miller is behind the initiative, and plans to do meat processing for several island farmers.
“We’re pretty excited about both of these projects,” said environment manager and ECAAC committee member Carla Skuce. “I think they have a really great potential to increase food security on the island.”
