As need increases during Alberta’s economic downturn, the Canadian Tire Corporation’s Jumpstart Charity intends to rise to the challenge.
Founded at the Cochrane branch in 2011, the national charity provides funding to families in financial need to allow their children to participate in sports.
“There’s no question that there are a number of families having a difficult time in light of what’s going on with the economy and the oil and gas industry in general. We’ve seen the demand go up and the type of requests coming in are more diverse,” said Rob Hatch, local dealer and chairman of the Cochrane chapter of the charity.
“When we started out here in Cochrane I think our budget was around $10,000, maybe less. In 2015, we dispersed almost $50,000 in this community,” Hatch said.
He anticipates the charity will be giving back even more in 2016, topping the 259 athletes it helped last year.
“The charity is made up of six very important community partners who all sit on the chapter and it’s also made up of a number of volunteers from the Canadian Tire family,” Hatch said.
The community partners are: Cochrane Big Brothers Big Sisters, Boys and Girl Club of Cochrane, Spray Lake Sawmill Family Sports Centre, the Town of Cochrane, and the Town of Cochrane Family and Community Support Services.
Families are able to access the charity discreetly by filling out an application with one of the chapter members.
“Like the other chapter members, we basically are a place where people can bring in their applications. Typically an endorsement is required from a community member who can speak to the situation, so coming to our office also helps because we can connect them with other resources,” said Melissa Engdahl, a community resource worker with the Family and Community Support Services.
“We serve families and we also recognize how important recreation is and involvement for children in our community. Jumpstart offers a great help for us to be able to connect with those families,” Engdahl added.
“We get funding through a number of ways – the primary way is through the community, through customers, and the local store, and through Sport Chek and Mark’s Work Wearhouse ,” Hatch explained.
He added community sport groups and other organizations have also been making donations to the chapter from various fundraising events they’ve held. On a broader level, the charity will be hosting the Pedal for Kids cycling event in September with some of the funding being allocated to the Cochrane branch.
“It’s really important to us … that every dollar raised locally stays right here and goes back into our community,” Hatch said.
“One great thing about the Jumpstart program is it’s so incredibly flexible. Not only will we pay for registrations for children, but we’ll buy equipment and, in some cases, even pay for transportation to get the child to the activity safely and back home again.”
In May, Canadian Tire and Sport Chek will be hosting a free bike tune-up event in the Canadian Tire parking lot.
“Anyone who brings a bike in, we’ll tune it up for free. All we ask is that they make a small donation to our local chapter,” Hatch explained.
Families wishing to access the charity can visit one of the community chapter members to fill out an application.
