To date, the Community Foundation has granted approximately $4.2 million to local charities with the forethought of creating a well-rounded community. We like to think that the Community Foundation has touched the lives of practically every resident in Trent Hills.
15 areas in which your life may have been touched by your Community Foundation
Click on an area to read more:
You may have taken your kids to the Splash Pad or Skatepark at Kennedy Park, watched them play soccer there, walked along the Waterfront in downtown Campbellford, or used the Rotary Trail. You may have participated in “Community Build Day”, helping us build three playgrounds in three communities in a single day in June 2010 or since taken your kids to one of these playgrounds in Campbellford, Hastings or Warkworth. You may have enjoyed the view over the Trent River from the gazebo at Picnic Island Park, swam and enjoyed a picnic at Crowe Bridge Conservation area, or enjoyed a hike at Ferris Provincial Park.
You may have visited the newest municipal recreation facility in Trent Hills, the Hastings Field House. You may have worked out at the Campbellford & District Curling and Racquet Club, or curled in one of their leagues. You may have kids participate in local sports such as Campbellford Minor Hockey, The Rebels, Junior or Senior Football at the high school, or Campbellford Minor Softball. You may be a lawn bowler, or play softball or baseball at the ball diamond on the Campbellford Fairgrounds. Perhaps your children attended one of the schools in Campbellford, enjoying rejuvenated playgrounds, ball diamonds and soccer fields, as well as new recess equipment and Phys. Ed. Equipment.
You may have taken in a movie or live entertainment at the Aron Theatre, attended a production at Westben Arts Festival Theatre, or attended the annual Santa Claus Parade in Campbellford. You may have attended the highly successful Campbellford Incredible Edibles Festival, attended the Campbellford Fair, or Campbellford’s 100th Anniversary Celebration in 2006. You may have had a child in the highly acclaimed CDHS Jazz Band, or in the Hillcrest Public School band, or in the Westben Festival Youth Chorus. You may have attended a local school production or assembly, enhanced by new lighting, sound and wireless microphones. You may have visited the Campbellford Seymour Heritage Society to investigate historical or genealogical material, or have read or own a copy of their book on the History of the Campbellford-Seymour Agricultural Society. Your local library has many resources funded by grants as well, from the Children’s Computer, the Eyewitness Series of Children’s books, books on CD for Adults, to author visits. Your children may even have attended one of Artworth’s excellent summer art camps.
You may have hiked at the Seymour Conservation Area, utilizing the benches, interpretive signs and accessible privy. Your kids can now escape the sun with the permanent shade shelter at St. Mary Elementary School, or one of the portable shade shelters purchased by local schools and used for outdoor events. Kent Public School planted shade trees on their playground and regraded the hill behind the school for flood control and to prevent soil erosion, turning it into an edible classroom with a forest food garden that will be used in the curriculum for years to come. Maybe you attended the Renewable Energy Conference and Trade Show held at Ferris Provincial Park in 2004, or were involved in the Friends of Crowe Bridge Park who succeeded in saving that conservation area so it can be enjoyed for many years to come.
Your organization or an organization that you utilize may have benefited from a student working there for the summer, or you may be the student, or the parent of a student that has gained on the job experience through our Job Opportunity for Youth granting initiative. You may have been a member of our Youth Advisory Council (YAC), which gives local youth a voice in their community, and a way to give back to their community through events they organize such as the Earth Day Clean-up, Halloween for Hunger, and the Christmas Toy Drive. You may even have donated to one of these events – another connection!
Your children may have attended Beehive Daycare or one of the schools located in Campbellford, who have all received funding for technology upgrades such as computers, smartboards, and tablets. Maybe you learned about an event on one of the digital signs at Hillcrest Public School, or Campbellford District High School. Hillcrest and St. Mary Catholic Elementary School also have created outdoor classrooms with grant funding, so your kids can enjoy the fresh country air while learning. Maybe you have taken a computer course at the Campbellford Community Resource Centre, or participated on one of our networking events called People, Partnerships and Possibilities.
You may have had a family member utilize The Bridge Hospice in Warkworth for palliative care, or had a child benefit from a tutoring program for students with learning disabilities. You may have used the Fair Share Foodbank, or taken a nutrition course or participated in a community kitchen through the Foodbank. You many have used the Venture Van for transportation, or used one of the many services provided by Community Care or Community Living. Maybe you attended a Palliative education and support program, or a Senior Years Family Education Day, or used the Seniors Wellness Road Map to locate services in Trent Hills.
If you have visited Campbellford Memorial Hospital, you have been touched by the community foundation. An Accessibility Audit, Energy management study, lighting redesign and retrofit, marketing campaign for physician recruitment, and a communications strategy have all been funded by grants from the community foundation. The x-ray table was partially funded in 2005, and more recently new hospital equipment such as the digital mammography machine, was purchased through funds raised through the Flourish Campaign and are some of our largest investments in community wellness. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows Humanitarian Services lend medical equipment to community members, and grant funding allowed them to add storage space and a repair shop to their building.
If you have visited the municipal office, the town pool, or Campbellford Memorial Hospital you have experienced improved accessibility to these facilities due to CSCF grants. St. John’s United Church Auditorium and the Aron Theatre both have received grants to upgrade their door systems, and the Royal Canadian Legion, Masonic Hall, and Lions Park Beach all have upgraded their washroom facilities to become more accessible. Ferris Provincial Park now has a Debug all-terrain wheelchair, allowing people with disabilities the opportunity to enjoy their trails, picnic areas and outlook points. Community Living Campbellford/Brighton and the Campbellford Community Resource Centre received grant funding to create a state-of-the-art conference centre in their facility, and it was named The Acorn Room, in acknowledgement of the CSCF funding. It is almost always fully booked, for all kinds of uses, from Tai Chi classes to meetings, workshops and conferences.
The Campbellford Rotary Club was instrumental in the conception of the Ranney Gorge Suspension Bridge leading to Ferris Park, and the landscaping of the west entrance to the bridge was funded by a grant. Downtown Campbellford looks more attractive, both summer and winter, thanks to grants to the Campbellford BIA for banners and Christmas Wreathes mounted on the light standards each season. The Rotary Club also purchased a boardroom table and chairs with grant funding, improving the space at the Rotary Hall to make it more useable for community groups. Trent Hills Community Policing received grants to improve the services they provide to the community, including surveillance cameras for the public library and the town pool.
The Municipal Fund at the Community Foundation is used for projects determined by the Municipality of Trent Hills. Your Trent Hills Fire Department has benefited from funding for a compressor and for breathing apparatus. Signage has also been improved, from the small directional signs leading to the library, to an educational heritage sign about Rice Growing on the Trent River, to a large sign for the business park. Booth Street, leading to Campbellford Memorial Hospital, and Petherick’s road were both upgraded through municipal fund grants, and the clock at the Clock Tower Cultural Centre (formerly the old town hall), was restored in partnership with the Lions Club of Campbellford. CSCF and the Municipality have enjoyed a productive and mutually beneficial relationship over the past 15 years, partnering on many projects with grant funding, such as the Revitalization of Kennedy Park, Downtown Waterfront revitalization, and recreation re-development through Flourish – The Trent Hills Wellness Campaign.
HATCH (Helping Assure Tomorrow’s Charitable Hearts) grants were available to schools from 2005 to 2018 and were used to develop projects that students determine are important to them and their school. As a parent, teacher, or student, your school community has benefited from annual $1,000 HATCH grants for projects such as litterless lunch kits, recycling stations, after school games clubs, recess play equipment and even math textbooks. Larger items like school benches, a juke box for the cafeteria and a TV monitor for school news and events were chosen by students in workshops facilitated by our YAC members. This grant initiative has since been replaced by the Commuity Kindness Grants for Schools initiative.
Each year the Community Foundation presents Peer Leadership Awards to deserving Campbellford students, nominated by their peers, for demonstrating outstanding leadership skills, at each school’s year-end assembly. These leadership certificates are personalized, with the reasons for the nomination printed on the back of the certificate, so that each student realizes the impact their actions have on those around them. The Community Foundation has also taken a leadership role in facilitating community meetings and events. You may have provided input at one of our Interactive Community Inquiry’s, where we asked local residents what kind of a large-scale project they would be interested in for the community, which ultimately lead to the Recreation and Wellness Centre Feasibility Study, with the first phase of the municipal recreation re-development initiative, the Hastings Field House, opening in 2015. You may have taken part in one of our team building workshops, or attended or have been honoured at, our Citizen of the Decade Event in 2006, in celebration of Campbellford’s 100th Anniversary.
Your business may have benefited from the requirement that our grant recipients purchase goods and services for their project locally, if possible, with any grant funding they receive from us. We patronize local businesses for any of our operational expenses, from office supplies to office repair and maintenance. We are proud to support the Northumberland County Buy Local campaign, and ensure our dollars flow back into the community, which ultimately stimulates the entire community.
Community foundations bring together people who care about their communities. We have been blessed to have had a number of enthusiastic community members volunteer to sit on our Board of Directors, or one of our many committees, over the past 15 years. Indirectly, the Community Garden initiated by our Environmental Committee a number of years ago, has attracted many local “green thumbs” to plant and cultivate produce for our local Food Bank. Or perhaps you are a volunteer with one of the organizations who have received a grant from the Community Foundation, providing in-kind labour or services to ensure the project’s completion. Another important connection to your community foundation!
