Last year marked the first time the Whistler Health Care Foundation (WHCF) dived into the world of community grants, offering up funds to help local groups and organizations cover costs associated with their health-care related initiatives.
The result? A total of more than $50,000 distributed to eight Whistler non-profits in 2022, with grants of up to $10,000 per applicant.
“Historically, the foundation was started to really support the [Whistler] Health Care Centre, but a few years ago we widened that mandate to support everything in the corridor,” explained Carol Leacy, board chair of the WHCF, in a December 2021 interview following the program's launch. “But we realized that a lot of our funding still goes through Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), to the hospital and whatnot, so we know we are able to support more than that but nobody has really applied. So we thought, ‘Why don’t we create this program and proactively reach out to the community?’”
That sum made it possible for both the Spearhead Huts Society's Kees and Claire Hut and the Garibaldi Volunteer Fire Department to purchase automated external defibrillators and other medical equipment; paid for new rescue and first aid gear for Whistler Search and Rescue; provided instructor training and new balance and strength equipment for Meadow Park Sports Centre's fall prevention programming; life-saving first aid training for Spring Creek Community School and helped cover costs associated with Whistler Community Services Society's extreme cold weather shelter, to name just a few grant recipients.
Now, the WHCF has opened up grant applications to other local organizations in need of funding for their own health-care-related initiatives in the coming months. The program is supported by the Goudge Family Foundation (that seed was planted during Whistler resident David Goudge's trip to Whistler's emergency clinic after a painful encounter with a brand-new knife a couple of years ago).
The deadline to submit funding applications is Feb. 28. All grants must be used to fund health-care initiatives that benefit residents, workers or visitors withing the Sea to Sky corridor.
The community grant funding program is just one of several ways the WHCF is supporting health-care in the Sea to Sky. The foundation recently funded more than $80,000 in new medical equipment for the Whistler Health Care Centre, and, through its community-funded Dr. Rob Burgess Primary Care Fund, donated $205,000 to Whistler 360 as that organization looks to re-imagine how primary care is delivered in the resort.
For more information or to submit a grant application, head to the WHCF's website.
