On a not so quiet Monday morning at the Steinbach MCC Thrift Store, folks from the community gathered in support of 6 local non-profit organizations, as the Thrift Store handed out $31,000 to the charities with monies from their 2023 profits.

Store Manager, Dave Thiessen says their mission statement is “to support and assist folks with their basic needs, and the just over $5,000 (each) went to non-profits that work closely with those individuals and families. And so, we want to recognize them and say thank you.”

The six organizations are, Eastman Special Olympics, Steinbach Community Outreach, Soups On, Youth for Christ Steinbach, Safe Families Canada – Steinbach and Southeast Helping Hands.

Thiessen spoke highly of each non-profit.

"Southeast Helping Hands is an organization that was started in 1980 by the Lion’s Club and now assists 400 community members and families every two weeks." It was noted that all staff and volunteers were busy preparing Community Christmas Hampers for delivery and were not able to attend the event.

Steinbach’s soup-kitchen, Soup’s On was founded in 2004 by Joy Neufeld out of the basement of the Grace Mennonite Church. Thiessen noted, "they serve two evening meals each week, plus providing school lunches and breakfast to students who may not otherwise get enough to eat."

Norma Hildebrand accepted the cheque on behalf of Soup’s on, says the money will help a lot.

“It makes a huge difference for the school lunches that we can supply to the schools. We are bringing lunches to 12 different schools, as well we have a family lunch program where we have over 100 kids registered. With this money we can continue to feed the hungry kids. I mean it's very important, it's a community effort.”

Thiessen handed a cheque to Cathy Wiebe, Regional Registration Coordinator for Eastman Special Olympics (ESO), noting the many years of strong programming for the vulnerable, those with intellectual disabilities. He continues by mentioning some of the sports these athletes are involved in, including swimming, bowling, track and field and many winter sports.    

“They (ESO) want to send six qualifying athletes in their respective sports to go to Calgary. They've raised about half of the money on their own, and we want to help them with the rest of the money to send them there.”  

Next Thiessen called up Irene Kroeker with Steinbach Community Outreach (SCO) to receive her cheque of just over $5,000.

He recalled an encounter with shoppers at MCC Thrift and asked them why their shopping cart was full of coffee makers, toasters, pots and pans and the couple replied,   

“Well, there's a new housing development for low-income folks, that apartment building is complete, but the folks there could do some help with furnishing it." Thiessen continued, "And so, this couple was doing their part. They picked up a bunch of stuff. They paid the bill. You know, it's just another example of how community connectedness works together to help support folks who need some support.”

Upon receiving the donation for SCO, Director Irene Kroeker, noted it wouldn’t be a problem finding places to use the money.

“We have three separate areas that we deal with at Steinbach Community Outreach, and of course the latest one is “The Bridge” so we need money from A-Z, we need money for everything. This will help our clients tremendously.”

Safe Families Canada-Steinbach was a first-time recipient from Steinbach MCC Thrift Store sales. Thiessen describes the organization.

“They're a local community of volunteers from churches in the Steinbach area showing compassion, mercy, and generosity by offering support, mentorship and often hosting children in their homes while parents work through different kinds of crisis and struggles, and kind of get things back. Those who work with Safe Families come alongside offering some kind of respite and support, taking the children into their homes while parents can work out their situation.” 

Sue Doerksen, Safe Families Canada-Steinbach Chapter Director was appreciative. 

“It's an amazing gift, and especially, you know, as the year wraps up and we look to the next year to helping, you know another bunch of families, right? And we're looking at next year's budget, and this just helps so much. We are just very grateful. Always a very big thank you. We are very grateful.”

 And finally, Youth for Christ Steinbach was acknowledged for their work with teenagers in our city. Thiessen says, there are over 60-youth that visit the center in Steinbach. Rueben Singh added, that while the skatepark is the gathering place in summer, the building is often full of teens year-round, playing pool, having coffee, playing games, eating food and enjoying conversation while building relationships with staff, volunteers and other teens.  

Thiessen notes, their staff needs to raise their own support, and “we want to support that. It's an organization that’s been in the community for 34 years now, and they've just opened up a satellite chapter in Blumenort.”

After all the monies were distributed Thiessen admits it was pretty rewarding.

“I would say in our community, and yeah, and the way that the fundraising works in this store also, we really depend on the community, so yeah, it is just rewarding to be able to support and know that we're supporting those (organizations) where the need is the greatest.”

 

 

In response to Canada's Online News Act and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) removing access to local news from their platforms, SteinbachOnline encourages you to get your news directly from your trusted source by bookmarking this page and downloading the SteinbachOnline app.