PCL Construction Manager Bruce MacPherson (l)and Robert Bailey (far right) present Mayor Victory Fedeli (c)with their United Way donation. Fedeli in turn presented Wendy Prieur of North Bay Focus with a donation from the Mayor's Trust.
PCL Construction Manager Bruce MacPherson (l)and Robert Bailey (far right) present Mayor Victory Fedeli (c)with their United Way donation. Fedeli in turn presented Wendy Prieur of North Bay Focus with a donation from the Mayor's Trust. Photo by Kate Adams.
North Bay Focus is the latest local charity to enjoy proceeds of the United Way via the Mayor’s Trust as PCL Construction made a substantial donation to The United Way Friday.
The Mayor’s Trust helps ensure that all money raised in North Bay for The United Way is returned to the charities intended here in the city and Mayor Victor Fedeli says PCL's donation is a real shot in the arm for the trust.
“This is fabulous,” states Fedeli.
“The well was dry when we started the Mayor’s trust then we received about $14,000 the second cheque was about $1400, so it has been distributed. So the well was dry and this (PCL donation) puts $15,000 back in the bank account to start distributing.”
“And the first cheque goes to the North Bay Focus a very important charity in the community and now there is money to be able to allocate to other charities on an as needed basis, until this spring in April when we get our next chunk of money from the United Way.”
Fedeli says the funds allocated have ranged from a hundred dollars to several thousand depending on the needs of each individual group proposal.
“The timing of it is perfect,” says North Bay Focus Executive Director Wendy Prieur.
Prieur says heading into yearend Focus along with their community partners and drug awareness committee are planning a huge event at Memorial Gardens for all of the Grade 11 students in North Bay.
“It will be a mock crash scenario and we haven’t had one of those since 1993 for our students. So the Grade 11 students will come and participate in what happens at a mock crash scene as far as the EMS and extrication goes, following that we will have a lawyer’s summation that talks about the legality of what happens after the crash.”
Prieur says a lot of students learn or have some sort of idea what impact a crash has on the victim but are ill informed about what they could be facing if they are the driver.
“They don’t have the information that follows that as far as that criminal record and how that sits or how people’s lives look a year or two later.”
Robert Bailey says the United Way is just one of the charities PCL supports nationally.
“Each year each district raises in a month’s campaign money for the United Way we’re based out of Toronto and I think that raised $213,000 this year which $15,000 is raised here by the staff specifically on this project and we wanted to donate our fundraising locally, so that is the result today.”
“Also this year as a project we spent time with the Habitat for Humanity and we also sponsored a couple of other events,” adds Bailey.
“Many of us have moved up to North Bay and we are here in the community and that is why we are doing things like this for the community because we are now residents and we want to make sure we are supporting where we are not back in Mississauga where our head office is,” states PCL Construction Manager Bruce MacPherson.
The Mayor's Trust was introduced in October and has delivered almost $17,000 to local charities including Habitat for Humanity, the Transition House, Big Sisters, White Water Gallery, NADY, Operation Red Nose, the Salvation Army, the Santa Fund, the Lions/CTV Telethon, and the North Bay Hospital Foundation.
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