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Foothills AIM gets a funding boost

Foothills Advocacy in Motion Society received $7,850 from the 100 Women Who Care Foothills on May 29, the highest amount the group has donated to-date.
100 Women
From left: Kathy Uanikhehi (team leader of FAIM in Okotoks), Brad Fowler (employment and day services manager of FAIM in Okotoks), Jessica Koch (fundraising and communications co-ordinator for FAIM), Julie Boake (leader, 100 Women Who Care Foothills) and Lisa Hudson (team leader, FAIM in Okotoks). 100 Women Who Care Foothills group donated $7,850 to the FAIM Society on May 29.

A Foothills area charity received a hand up this week from a group of women looking to help better their community.

The 100 Women Who Care Foothills donated $7,850 to the Foothills Advocacy in Motion (FAIM) Society, which works to meet the needs of disabled people in Foothills and Wheatland Counties by providing relationships, skill development and work opportunities in Okotoks, High River and Strathmore.

With the current economic situation, 100 Women leader Julie Boake said she was unsure she would host a meeting in May, but decided to run with it and give the 80 members the option to not donate if they were unable.

They ran the meeting entirely online, with presentations done via video stream and virtual voting, and Boake said she was shocked by the results – 80 per cent contributed but some chose to give extra, bumping the total donation to a record high (the previous highest amount was $7,500, given to the Veterans Food Bank in February).

“It was amazing, it went so well, and all virtually,” said Boake.

Jessica Koch, fundraising and communication co-ordinator for FAIM, nominated the society at the spring meeting of the 100 Women Who Care – a group of ladies who meet quarterly to choose a charity to support, then each write a cheque for $100 to the selected organization.

“We can’t fundraise right now,” said Koch. “We’re projecting a 50 per cent drop in our fundraising revenues and we’re trying to add in extra supports for our clients because they’re isolated right now, too.”

She said the annual gala should have been May 30 but has been cancelled due to COVID-19, as has the annual golf tournament at Highwood Golf Club. The High River run FAIM puts on in September is moving to a virtual format, but its results are unpredictable, she said.

Cancelling these events, in addition to regular donors being affected by the state of economy, means FAIM will likely raise $50,000 of the $100,000 it had projected for 2020, she said.

“A lot of our donors are affected by the economic downturn and we aren’t expecting to see the same individual donations we would normally receive,” said Koch.  

While FAIM receives some government funding, there are some things like mileage and vehicle repairs that aren’t covered by those dollars, she said.

Brad Fowler, employment and day services manager for FAIM in Okotoks, said typically fundraising covers funding shortfalls.

The $7,850 from 100 Women may be put toward purchasing a vehicle to help clients get to and complete their jobs, he said.

“We have an old farm truck that was donated to us, but it really is a farm truck,” said Fowler. “This gives us the opportunity to get a vehicle that we would be able to use year-round safely. We pretty well have people out and about in the community every day that we are open.”

Clients maintain 16 of the Canadian Diabetes donation bins at various sites, collecting items and transferring them to a storage locker. They also do recycling and other like jobs in the community, and a courier route downtown.

Those jobs have all been put on hold during the pandemic, he said, and clients are looking forward to returning to a sense of normalcy. Right now, staff members are connecting with everybody daily.

“Staff have been connecting with people in their homes and it’s challenging, for sure, supporting people remotely, but we’re trying to keep them active through learning skills online, giving them different challenges to do,” said Fowler. “Staff have been very creative in coming up with workbooks, playing Yahtzee online, playing cards.”

He said everyone is anxious to get back to the regular routine, though they don’t know yet when that may happen.

It’s undetermined whether FAIM’s reopening will be part of the Phase 2 or 3 of the Province’s relaunch strategy, but Fowler said they’re preparing for the day it can open its doors to clients again.

“That alone has been overwhelming for us,” he said. “We did it yesterday and we were shocked. We thought we had a big space, but when you start doing six-foot distancing, it’s really shocking for us to realize how few people we could have on-site.”

As a community-based organization, he said FAIM will continue supporting people in its jurisdiction however it can, adding back its services as the town and province open up more.

It’s all about the clients, he said.

“They like to be active and contribute to the community,” said Fowler. “They do feel so much a part of this town, and they are absolutely missing that opportunity.”

Krista Conrad, OkotoksToday.ca

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