Help for the helpers

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BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Catherine Roberts and Loraine Turcotte of the Manitoba Community Services Council with Manitoba Riding for the Disabled�s Peter Manastyrsky. (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

The one thing charities and non-profit organizations have in common is they do good work in the community.

Unfortunately, they also have something else in common -- they all struggle to raise funds and rely heavily on volunteers to help do it.

But there is one organization that can help reduce their struggles.

Thanks to the Manitoba Community Services Council (MCSC), hundreds of organizations across the province are helped annually with both big projects and others that may seem small, but to tiny organizations are huge.

Peter Manastyrsky, executive director of Manitoba Riding for the Disabled, which provides a therapeutic horseback riding program for children with special needs, said the financial support his organization received from the MCSC was crucial.

"It allowed us to keep going," Manastyrsky said.

"Last year we were close to shutting the program down. The funding from MCSC helped tremendously because without them 23 children would have been out of the program.

"And for a lot of these kids there aren't any other activities they can be part of."

Loraine Turcotte, MCSC's chairwoman, said that's what the organization hopes to do with all the groups it touches.

"The good thing about the MCSC, which is amazing, is we have no limitation on who can apply other than education and medical institutions," Turcotte said.

"We can help all the organizations that fall through the cracks."

The MCSC was created by the provincial government in 1984 as an arm's-length organization responsible for giving out actual cash in grants or granting the organization the ability to raise money by volunteering at bingo events at the province's two casinos in Winnipeg through the Manitoba Lotteries Corporation.

With the $2 million the provincial government gives it annually, the MCSC helps organizations across the province that are responsible for community services, social services, recreation and health by supporting projects and services.

The MCSC has an 18-member board made up of people from across the province and it reports to the Minister of Housing and Community Development and the Minister responsible for the voluntary sector.

Last year, the council handed out $1.74 million and allocated 408 bingo events to allow organizations to raise an additional $910,000. The year before it gave out $1.77 million in grants and $813,600 in bingo events.

Each evening bingo allocated to a group garners it $3,000, while an early or late bingo earns $1,500 and a matinee bingo raises $1,800. A minimum of seven volunteers are needed at a bingo.

"It's crucial we have representation on our board from across the province," Turcotte said.

"We had a lady on our board from inner-city Winnipeg and she taught me so much about that area and we had a gentleman from Swan River who would know right away if a project is needed or not. It gives us a very wide perspective.

"The more diverse our board the better the outcome. After all, it's the province's money going back to the taxpayer."

The MacGregor Nursery School was able to volunteer at a bingo to pay for door renovations. A skateboard park project in Swan River received $16,000. The Dauphin Pottery and Ceramic Club got $5,000 to buy a pottery kiln and wheels. The Beulah Community Club received $4,200 for a new furnace. The Gilbert Plains Drop In Centre got $1,300 for a new fridge and stove and the Arborg Bifrost Parks and Recreation Commission was able to volunteer at two bingos to raise money for equipment.

To help children with disabilities, they require playground projects be accessible for mobility and other disabilities including making the play structure not only accessible, but to include components that could be used by the children with special needs.

"The MCSC serves everyone in the province," Turcotte said.

"Recreation, social, seniors, aboriginals, inner city, children, daycares, playgrounds, communities. We will even help golf clubs if the youth in the area benefit."

The Lac du Bonnet Community Centre is another organization helped by the MCSC.

Sharalyn Reitlo, the centre's president, said the money they received in grants and from four bingos helped them install synthetic floors in their centre's bowling lanes.

"While it is supposed to last forever, it is expensive," said Reitlo. "Thanks to the MCSC we were able to do this job quicker than we would have if we'd had to fundraise. We already fundraise to keep the centre going."

Catherine Roberts, MCSC's executive director, said about 300 organizations are helped every year and few applications are rejected. She said once a group applies and receives help, 18 months later they can apply again for another project.

"There are hundreds of good stories about the applications," Roberts said.

"People often see problems in their community and they come to us for help."

Roberts said for people granted bingo events, lotteries personnel quickly train the volunteers what to do.

"They are very organized to help people who may never have done a bingo before," she said.

For more information on how to apply for a grant from the MCSC, call 940-4450, email applications@mbcsc.ca or send a fax to 453-2692.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 30, 2011 A27