2026 Community and International Investments

 

 

 

Launched in 2021 based on suggestions from our Club, Quesnel Tillicum Society is currently providing 40 families with a back pack of food each weekend, during the school year.

 

QTS works closely with Save On Foods who provide generous discounts but the food still costs $30-$35 per back pack, so our members decided to dedicate $1,000 in what we call Happy Bucks to the cause (members pay to make personal announcements at our meetings). 2026-27 President Tim Hall presented our donation at our lunchtime meeting of August 14th.

 

Click here for more details of the Program.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since the invasion of February 2022, we have established an ongoing communication with Rotary Intercountry Committee Canada Ukraine, founded by Rotary leaders from both countries, tasked with "Building bridges of peace, service and friendship between Canada and Ukraine." 

 

A visit to the Facebook page of the ICC will show you the positive impact it is making in extremely difficult times.

 

The success of our Beer Festival event facilitated a number of Quesnel-local project grants and enabled us to sponsor one attendee of a summer camp:

 

 

 

 

As a rule, we don't do sponsorships, preferring to help groups and organizations with the purchase/development of long-term assets, but we were happy to make an exception for Quesnel & District 4H in support of their Club-to-Club Exchange with 4H in Saskatchewan, the only such Exchange involving a club from our province this year. Always good to Quesnel on the map!

 

The Saskatchewan 4H-ers come to town the week of Billy Barkers Days, then Quesnel 4H-ers will head east in August.

 

At our lunchtime meeting on June 11th, President Linda Turner presented Q&D 4H President Erin Kishkan with our grant cheque for $900 which will take care of the cost of their day trip to Barkerville.

 

 

 

June 2026: We joined a Global Grant project to bring Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene, aka WASH, to two elementary schools in Watumi, Kilifi County, in Kenya. Looking at the image below, you can see why. 

 

 

 

 

 

Strictly speaking not a Club grant, but club members combined to raise the largest amount by any team registered for the event held on 28th February in support, locally, of Amata Transition House.

 

Ironically, it was anything but the coldest night of the year but we were still brave enough to add some colour to the event - those unicorns in the background...Rotarians Coral Byrd and Joanie Newman with their friend Kandis Ranger!

 

 

 

In February and May, not only did a crack team of volunteers prepare and package meals for seniors, under the close supervision of Anita Dobie of North Cariboo Seniors' Council, we also paid for all the groceries!

 

For us, it's a terrific investment of $700-$750, and we have a great time slicing and dicing, peeling and mashing, as you can see from the photos posted on our Meals for Seniors page.

 

 

 

The mission and purpose of Quesnel Writers' Club is one succinct sentence!

 

Their annual event in October, Quesnel Writers' Day, is designed to help and encourage local budding writers to take that first step. The Club sets up information booths and has a guest speaker or two to share their own experiences - authors, songwriters, bloggers, they all have something to share and Quesnel Writers' Day brings them all together.

 

As a rule, we do not provide sponsorships (we tend to focus of the acquisition of long-term assets), but coincidental events came together to make it possible. Last November, Dr John Havens (who had encouraged the Club to to us for a grant) celebrated 60 years of club membership; in turn, and completely out of the blue, we received a donation from Theresa Metzger on behalf of her parents, the Barber family - Dr John and Dr Neil Barber were colleagues back in the day at Avery Clinic. The connections were irrestistible and it was clear we were being compelled to become sponsors of the 2026 Quesnel Writers' Day so, at our liunchtime meeting of 5th January, that's precisely what we did, to the tunme of $500!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Along with the general community of Quesnel, we are regularly humbled by the selfless work performed by the hyper-dedicated volunteers of Quesnel Search & Rescue, putting themselves at risk to find and rescue loved ones from perilous situations. The hours they put into training and practice so as to increase the chances of a positive outcome...truly amazing.

 

When we heard they could use portable automated external defibrillators (AEDs), we saw the opportunity to be of financial assistance. Combining funds from our Community Gaming Grant, proceeds from the 2025 Craft Beer Festival, and a Rotary Foundation grant through our District, we were able to 100% finance the $4,746 purchase of not one but two units, both smaller and lighter thereby making them so much easier to transport and deploy.