Racked with financial troubles and seeing no obvious way out, the Executive Director of the Pat Porter Active Living Centre is calling for support.

Audrey Harder says the COVID-19 pandemic has all but snuffed out their other usual income sources which has left them in a precarious position. She says facility rentals normally generate between $90,000 and $100,000 a year and paid-for programming usually hauls in another $50,000. Right now, because of the virus, neither of those revenue streams are viable.

To make matters worse, she says even funding the centre had been depending on for years was suddenly and unexpectedly pulled from them just recently.

“We do get some funding from the Regional Health Authority and that in and of itself has become a struggle,” she details. “They redistributed their funding for senior services within the Southern Health region and it ended up that the Pat Porter Centre and Serving Seniors Incorporated are now getting less funding from them by $11,600.”

Harder notes a few well-timed grants have been able to keep them operating, but the going is tough. As a direct result of COVID-19, all of the centres programs are now online and she says it does not feel right to demand compensation for digital content as it would just make the service less accessible.

“We didn’t feel the need to charge people for that because our mandate is to provide an opportunity to better life for seniors in the community who are really needing it.”

She adds one recent grant has enabled them to purchase several iPads which arrived just last week.

“They were all fancy and new, we were very excited,” she describes. “We are now able to loan those out so if there is a senior in the community who wants to digitally connect with family, we can help them out with that, and there is no charge for that as well."

Still, that generosity comes with a cost, and Harder says her centre is in need of money.

One of many fundraisers Harder has had to cancel due to social gathering size limitations is the centre’s annual banquet which typically happens around this time. Instead, she says the board is working through plans to hold a golf tournament fundraiser this summer. Harder also plans to launch a campaign in the coming days encouraging the people of Steinbach to take the Pat Porter Active Living Centre into consideration when planning out their giving for 2021. Anyone interested in donating is invited to visit the centre's website for more information.