2004-2005 PCI YAC Report

PCI 2005The fourth year of the Youth in Philanthropy project at Portage Collegiate has been an excellent experience for our group. We held our initial meeting at noon in October, 2004 with a large group of prospective YIP members. The students who are currently members of our group are Ashley Edgar, Caitlin Gobert, Michelle McCorrister, Julie-Anne Johnston, Roslyn Graham, Sidney Murray, and Janelle Painter.

Back: L to R: Sidney Murray, Roslyn Graham, Kalyn Guthro, Caitlin Gobert, Ashley Edgar
Front L to R: Natalie Patenaude, Janelle Painter, Teisha Mazarut, Ashley Barrett, Sidney Gilbert, Nikki Mcleod, Carly Hamilton Missing: Michelle McCorrister, Julie-Anne Johnston

On October 21 we held an afternoon orientation workshop at PCI. Our workshop leaders were Karen Braden and Jim Rennie. As a result of this workshop and further discussion at the following meeting our group decided to research charities which worked to help people with medical needs, children and seniors in need, and animals. Subsequently we were unable to find a local charity that works to help animals. We had planned to visit Delta but cancelled that visit when their road was washed out.

We received letters from the charitable organizations that we donated money to in 2004-2005. The letters included a description of the use of the funds in the programs that we had helped. We were very excited to review the letters and pleased to learn the results of our grants.

We have not held a fund raising activity for our endowment fund yet and that will be our next project. We would like to promote Youth in Philanthropy project during the PCI Reunion July 7, 2005.

On November 24 members of the PCI YIP group worked at an information booth at the Portage Mall and on November 26 member of the PCI YIP group worked at an information booth at the Co-op Mall. We prepared a tri-fold brochure for Youth in Philanthropy students to hand out at the booth and a PowerPoint presentation which Karen Braden was able to show on her laptop.

We diligently chose charitable organizations that we thought would match our values and attended interviews with the members of our chosen organizations. Following their visits with the charities they wrote reports on their site visits and presented them to the Youth in Philanthropy group with a recommendation. The YIP members enjoyed learning about the groups that they researched and made several recommendations for grants. We have come to a consensus on who we would like to recommend for grants and what amount we feel should be granted to each organization.

There is an excellent opportunity to meet with other members of Youth in Philanthropy in Winkler on May 14 but unfortunately none of the members of our group are able to attend on that day.

We are able to make the following recommendations:

Portage Women's Shelter - To support play equipment for the children and playroom $400
Association for Community Living Manitoba - To support community activities such as bowling for clients of this association. $200
Portage ARC Industries - To support the purchase of tools and shelves and to assist in the purchase of a washer and dryer. $500
Portage Learning Centre - To support the purchase of a new camcorder and VCR/DVD player. $500
Kozy Korner To support the purchase of a new vacuumn cleaner and garbage cans. $400
Central Plains Cancer Care Services To support the purchase of an education video for schools $200
Big Brothers and Big Sisters - advertising for male mentors for the Big Brothers program $300
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