Little People’s Place receives support

Latest beneficiary of 100+ Women of Shelburne County Who Care donation

Little People’s Place in Shelburne is the latest recipient of a donation by the 100+ Women of Shelburne County Who Care, receiving a cheque for $10,200 at the group’s quarterly meeting at the Shelburne Lions Club on March 7.

Since starting last year, the group has raised and given back to the community almost $50,000 to five community groups. One of the recipients, Camp Jordan, used their donation to leverage an additional $14,000 from government to finish their accessibility project.

“They were able to leverage the funds they received from us to receive more funding so really there was well over $50,000 going back to the community in the first year,” says Penny Smith, one of the group’s founding members and warden for the Municipality of Shelburne. “We’re pretty proud of that as a group for sure.”

Shelburne County VON, Shel- The executive of the group, 100+ Women of Shelburne County Who Care, pose with the recipients of their latest donation of $10,200, made to Erin Locke and Sue Elliott from Little People’s Place in Shelburne. From left: Wanda Mood, Tamara Locke, Pam Mingle, Erin Locke, Sue Elliott, Penny Smith and Suzy Atwood. burne County Special Olympics and Sou’West Nova Transit were the other recipients in 2017. How the process works, explains Smith, is the women who are part of the group get to nominate a deserving organization. The nominations are assigned numbers, which are put in a hat and randomly drawn.

The three that are picked are asked to make a five-minute presentation to the group, describing who they are, what they would use the money for, and why they feel they are the most deserving. Once the presentations are finished, a vote is taken on the charity of choice, with each member or group of members getting one vote.

The three nominees considered at the March 7 meeting were Barrington Exhibition, Little People’s Place and South Shore Family Resource Centre.

“Even though only one nominee receives the money at the meeting, it certainly gives great exposure to the others who are presenting and of course for the ladies it’s an opportunity to learn more about organizations in the community we might not even be aware of,” Smith says.

Since starting the group last year, more women are becoming involved, she says.

“When we started we had 83 commitments but because we had some groups of four and five and two we probably had about 115 women involved,” for a total commitment of $8,300, she says.

“Since then at the last two meetings we’ve had 102 commitments so probably about 160 women are involved now,” says Smith. “Our goal is to give $10,000 so we’ve asked the ladies to spread the word and bring a friend,” which they are doing.

“I think what’s so great about it is the ladies recognize it’s being a part of something that is bigger than ourselves and we’re making such a difference,” says Smith. “Looking back over the year and seeing $50,000 going back into the community makes us pretty proud to think we accomplished that together.”