FUN Society announces new partners!
FUN Society is pleased to announce a new partnership with Catching the Spirit - an environmental stewardship and leadership program that takes place in Metro Vancouver Parks! It is a natural fit and we are very excited to be working closely with them. www.catchingthespirit.com
FUN Society is pleased to announce that Live for Tomorrow a Vancouver based company that makes non-toxic cleaning products in re-usable packaging will be providing us with in-kind products and will choose one FUN Camps participant who has shown exceptional leadership skills to blog on their website about their social change/environmental work during the 2010/2011 school year. http://www.live-for-tomorrow.com
FUN Camps Scholarship Program awarded $5000 by Edith Lando Foundation
FUN Society is excited to announce that Edith Lando Charitable Foundation has contributed $5000 towards our FUN Camps Scholarship Program. This enables 25 kids or youth who are disadvantaged to attend our programs free of charge. This program is so important for their self-esteem and development. Thank you Edith Lando Foundation!
Schein Foundation contributes $8000
In December 2009 the Schein Foundation put an end to our year and a half of functioning without outside funding by donating $8000. It was a turning point for us and was a great lead-in to a very successful 2010. Thank you so much for taking a leap and believing in us.
FUN Camps 2009 a great success!
FUN Camps ran in Victoria and Vancouver in 2009 and was a great success! Here are a few things that were said by parents, campers and peer leaders:
Kiki Cekota Age 12: "At FUN Camps you learn a lot about saving the environment. It is really really fun but also educational at the same time. When I got home I told my parents everything I learned, and when school started I joined the Round Square Club at my school that works to fight global warming and helps kids and environmental causes in Africa! I already walked to school, but now I also take shorter showers and my parents try to use their cars less. It really inspired us to start making these changes!"
Ladan Laghaei (mother of Mahtab Age 11) “Mahtab really enjoyed the fun camp. Every day she came home with a new idea about how we can recycle things and have a green impact on environment. As a result we have decided to buy a compost container and recycle our perishable garbage.”
Thank you so much to all of the staff, volunteers, sponsors and supporters who made FUN Camps a huge success. We are very excited for 2010!
NEW FUN Leader Program for FUN Camps!
FUN Society is launching a Leadership program for youth ages 13-16 that will prepare them to be a FUN Camps volunteer or leader later on, but will also provide them with leadership skills that will be valuable for the rest of highschool and their life.
FUN Society granted Charitable Status!
Another recent and huge success has been receiving our Charitable Status. We are now a fully registered Canadian charity! We managed to achieve this in less than 6 months, which is no small feat. Thank you so much to Lyda for all of your work on that, and to somebody else who knows who they are :-) We are now able to give out tax receipts and we have an account with canadahelps.org - This is a great site that allows you to make donations online, and you receive your tax receipt instantly! Please please consider making a donation to FUN Society, even if it is very small. You can make a one-time donation, or sign up as a monthly donor. We need your support now more than ever! We had our only confirmed funding cut for this year and are busily seeking other sources of funding, but are currently operating with a budget of next to nothing. Everyone seems to want to know that there is confirmed funding before they will give out their funding (a vicious cycle!)
Anything will help at this point! Thank you so much in advance, your support is crucial and so very appreciated!
FUN Society hires new staff for 2009!
It is with great excitement that we welcome James Hutt to our team. Flying all the way from Halifax to BC to be a part of FUN Camps, James will be a great addition to our team, coming on board as this year’s Vancouver Coordinator.
We would also like to officially welcome Melissa Gerrard, who began as a FUN Camps volunteer last year and is now a major part of the FUN Society team. She has spent the year coordinating our FUN Links program that connects highschool students with environmental organizations, as well as running our after-school program and Spring Break Camp. She comes on board this year as the Vancouver Program Leader. We are very excited to have her working full time with FUN Society!
A big welcome also to Ben Miller and Cassandra Storey, who will be running our camps in Victoria, BC this August!
To see bios of these great folks, see our Staff page.
