The Cochrane Foundation gave out $80,000 last night, $75,000 from their own endowment fund to non for profit organizations and $5,000 from the Dr. George McQuitty scholarship split between two medical students.

This money was given though grants which were selected through a tedious application process. The applicants then go through a meeting process before the foundation decides who qualifies for the grant.

The foundation has held this event for 31 years.

"Well, it will hopefully go forever because an endowment fund is permanent, So somebody's got to run it. Hopefully it's always run in a responsible way and I'm sure it will be if you put the right people in place, but this is forever. That's the intention of an endowment fund." said board chair Tim Harvie.

Board Members

He added "Sometimes we have more grant requests than we have funds for. So then we have to make some decisions. So it's a bit of a juggling act at the end, but we can make it fit well, so most projects get full funding for what they request."

The event was held at the SLS Centre who gave the space to the foundation for free.

The recipients of the grants include:

  • Alberta Institute for wildlife Conservation
  • Bethany Care Foundation
  • Boys and Girls Club
  • Canadian Adaptive Snow Sports Association
  • Cochrane Ag Society
  • Cochrane Area Health Foundation
  • Cochrane area Humane Society
  • Cochrane Art Club
  • Cochrane Ecological Institute
  • Cochrane Public Library
  • Cochrane Search and Rescue Association
  • Extreme cowboy Association
  • Glenbow Ranch Park Foundation
  • Helping Hands Society
  • Jensen Ranch Rescue Society
  • Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service
  • Spring Lake Sawmill Rec Center Park Society