The City of Abbotsford has handed out $3,665 to help fund small-scale projects to reduce COVID-related social isolation.
The city, with the help of the Vancouver Foundation and Abbotsford Community Foundation, had earlier launched a program to reallocate money previously slated for its neighbourhood small grant program to help address the social effects of the ongoing pandemic.
Eight different projects received funding.
They included:
- A family who made 300 washable masks and handed them out to neighbours, businesses, seniors and health organizations;
- A yoga instructor – Alexandria Waycott – who held weekly free online yoga classes in June;
- A group of Abbotsford teens who put together care packages and handed them out to fellow youth in need at the Cyrus Centre;
- A family with three young kids who created care packages for their elderly neighbours. Along with essentials, each recipient received hand-painted frames and small wooden birdhouses
- An online science café that will be held this fall. The talks will be given by experts in their respective fields, will be followed by question-and-answer sessions. The talks are free for anyone to participate and will run on the first Tuesday of each month until December. Sign up at sciencetalks.ca
A member of the family who made the masks said in their project has been inspiring.
“This has been such a good experience and seeing people brought to tears from something as simple as a mask has been very motivating for me,” he said in a news release. “We are still continuing to make the masks and have even inspired some of our friends to start making masks as well.”