Farm Credit Canada was pleased to present a $10,000 Expressions Fund grant to the Community Development Corporation in the town of Ste. Anne. 

Early Childhood Education Program is held at École Pointe-des-Chênes in Ste. Anne.

FCC Community Investment Consultant Susan Cameron, says there were 70 applicants from across Canada, but only eight organizations were selected to receive a grant.

"The fund is to support official minority languages and the communities where they thrive. Before we even saw the application [from the CDC in Ste. Anne], the Official Languages Commission asked that federal Crowns look at helping out in the area of early childhood education in minority language communities."

Cameron says when the application from the CDC arrived with a plan to contribute to an early childhood education program, they were excited, and it was put through to the next level of evaluation.

"Our evaluators were also really excited about bringing together all kinds of different services in French. Many families would have had to drive to Winnipeg in order to really benefit from that programming in French. So we are really excited it existed, and that we could help it become even better."

Cameron notes they like to spread the FCC Expressions grant across the country, and it's been a long time since Manitoba had a winning project.

The Early Years Education Program is being run out of École Pointe-des-Chênes in Ste. Anne.