The 70 Mile Community Club pancake breakfast March 5 drew a good turnout at the local community hall.
Community Club chair Ken Huber estimated 100 people came to the breakfast, donating about $1,000 for the Phase 2 upgrades at the newly renovated 70 Mile House Community Hall.
There was so much interest in the local breakfast fundraiser that by 9:30 a.m., when a large group arrived, they ran out of pancake ingredients in the kitchen.
“We had to go to the store to buy more supplies,” Ken said. “We will be more prepared next time, and get another person in the kitchen somehow.”
Dennis Huber, who manned the door during the breakfast, said one person made a $200 donation to the hall. The $1,000 raised has been added to the previous donations, bringing the total in the building fund to between $6,500 and $7,000.
Another pancake breakfast by-donation event is slated for the Community Hall on April 2 from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m.
“We need to double that amount just to do the kitchen flooring and the revamping of the plumbing,” Ken said. “There are all of the other projects you can see when you walk in the door [flooring and painting]. So this will be an ongoing thing.”
While the kitchen is fairly small, he said once the kitchen is renovated, “it will be more group-oriented.”
SMAC aiding families
The Seventy Mile Access Centre (SMAC) is in need of donations at its Country Food Pantry to help four families over the next year.
SMAC spokesperson Kathleen Judd said one of the recipients is a woman, who was in an abusive marriage, with two children, while the second is a woman on a pension who is paying $800 in rent and can’t make ends meet. The third and fourth recipients - a single man raising a child and a couple - are struggling to live on limited funds, Judd said.
People who want to make donations can drop off non-perishable food, including dry goods, canned food and instant food, or cash at SMAC or the 70 Mile General Store, which has a box set up for donations.
Judd added donations could also include “shampoo, tin foil, vinegar or things like that.”
For more information, please call Judd at 250-945-5325.
Hotdog days
SMAC is also raising funds by holding “Hotdog Days” at SMAC from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m on Saturdays.
A single hotdog will cost $3.50, or $5 with pop and a bag of chips. People can go into the SMAC building and order their lunch.
Judd says they will extend the Hotdog Days and hold them more often in the summer. The proceeds will go toward SMAC operations.
Society number
After three years of hard work, the SMAC board has been confirmed as a non-profit organization.
Judd said in order to have the old society number reinstated, they had to send in the financial information for the past three years, including the previous two years when a different board was in charge of SMAC operations.
The new SMAC board is now “starting from zero,” she said. “We started from different rules because the rules have changed.”
The board will hold its AGM at 10 a.m. April 9 at SMAC. The executive will then have to send in the AGM minutes.
Once that’s done, Judd said she can start applying for funding for new programs.
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