Blue Mountain Village Foundation 2025 Winter Grant Recipients
Blue Mountain Village Foundation is pleased to announce $37,500 in funding to the following organizations and their programs:
We at Mobile Soup Kitchen and Elephant Thoughts want to express our sincere gratitude for the generous support from the Blue Mountain Village Foundation. Your donation will significantly help us maintain reliable transportation. Having dependable vehicles is crucial for our operations. This allows us to reach more people and expand our services. We appreciate your commitment to our mission. Thank you again for your contribution and belief in our work. We look forward to updating you on our progress.
Rhonda Day
Gilda’s Club Simcoe Muskoka, an affiliate of the Cancer Support Community, is dedicated to providing support, education and hope to all people living with a cancer diagnosis. Gilda's Club will be using funding from the BMVF to support more members in the region. Accessible support to everyone on Collingwood, Wasaga Beach and the Town of The Blue Mountains is a priority for Gilda's Club. This grant will allow for expansion in Outreach, Virtual Programming and On Demand Programming. Thanks to The Blue Mountain Village Foundation for joining our community! Together, this community is STRONGER than cancer.
Deb James
The Seniors Wellness Program at the Marsh Street Centre is a delightful weekly event where seniors gather for a delicious lunch catered by a local restaurant, enjoying the company of others in a relaxed, small-group setting. The event features fun, chair-based exercise sessions promoting gentle physical activity followed by engaging presentations and/or activities.
Erna Scholz
With every year, whether through a parent, grandparent, neighbour or friend, we move closer to the challenges seniors face. As a charity supporting individuals with diverse disabilities, we recognize many seniors develop some form of disability as they age resulting in growing isolation from their community. We also recognize some of our existing and long-time consumers of our programs are aging and facing their own challenges of staying connected and engaged. Our current senior's program is hybrid and although we enjoy growing participation, there is a growing sector of older adults who do not have the technological experience to navigate Zoom to facilitate their inclusion, if they cannot attend in-person. BMVF's support of our Plugged-IN to Seniors Project addresses this challenge and offers a multi-layered approach to digital training for seniors. Seniors can choose to be part of a series of in-house digital training workshops, one-on-one training or by appointment tap into our mobile training option where we travel to their home for safe, personalized digital training. The more seniors we can train on navigating Zoom, the more opportunities are available for them to participate in community programs like ours where they can socially connect, learn something new, hear health and wellness presentations and much more.
Lucille Dalziel
These are complex times. Many people are struggling and finding it harder and harder to cope. Sadly, we see the negative effects of these struggles represented in the local statistics, particularly tragically around opioid deaths and suicides.
It is innate in all of us to want to help and many individuals are looking for opportunities to help but are unsure how to start. CMHA Grey Bruce has a long history of providing a wide variety of awareness and education programs. Their training catalogue includes training programs such as Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), SafeTALK (Suicide Alertness for Anyone), Applied Suicide Intervention Skills training (ASIST) and Empathic Strain workshops. The BMVF is honoured to be able to sponsor subsidised spaces for these trainings for individuals in the Blue Mountains region that may find the fee to participate a barrier to attend.
Jackie Ralph
The grant received from the BMVF for our Camp Program 2025 will provide several children and youth with access to summer camps or extracurricular programs of their choice, offering them a chance to develop life skills and give them a sense of belonging. Our goal is to empower those children and youth and give them opportunities they wouldn’t have otherwise. Our camp program is a pre-existing program that has been running for several years, and we know first-hand how beneficial it is for its participants. Feedback we receive from children, youth and care providers motivates us to continue this program and enhance our partnerships with local camps, to give as many children and youth as possible with lifelong summer memories.
Jerome Ben Tolila
Magic of children in the Arts has been in operation in the Collingwood region for almost 30 years. But to date, our focus has been on the 14 elementary schools in the Collingwood area.
The grant that we have received from BMVF will change this. These funds will go directly to supplying art workshops to the grades 3,6 and 8 of Georgian Bay Community School, located in the Meaford area. As an added benefit to this grant, these workshops will be delivered by a local artist. We are sincerely grateful for the support from BMVF.
David Barrett
This is Living Better with Parkinson’s third year hosting the South Georgian Bay Parkinsons Festival. We are thrilled to receive funding from the Blue Mountain Village Foundation which will offset complimentary lunches to the over two hundred attendees.
Catherine Smart
The grant from the Blue Mountain Village Foundation supports our Healthy Meals program at My Friend’s House, allowing us to provide nutritious meals and snacks for our families in our shelter. Women prepare and cook their own meals while they stay with us. These funds also allow us to provide nutrition education and budgeting best practices for meals and grocery shopping from our skilled staff members. We are so grateful to the Blue Mountain Village Foundation for supporting this initiative for My Friend’s House. With rising costs of food and significant intergenerational trauma we see with our clients, we know that breaking cycles and providing guidance and education around nutrition are so important to creating healthier futures for our families to thrive. Thank you once again!
Jodi Petitpas
The BMVF grant for Home Horizon’s Youth Outreach Program will have a transformative impact on the lives of at-risk youth in our community. Young people who seek support from Home Horizon Outreach often face significant challenges, including family breakdown, abuse, trauma, mental health struggles, and substance use. Indigenous, racialized, and LGBTQ+ youth are particularly vulnerable, facing systemic barriers that limit their access to essential resources and opportunities.
Since launching in 2020, the Youth Outreach Program has expanded our reach beyond the Barbara Weider House, providing meals, hygiene products, clothing, and crisis support while connecting youth with housing, mental health, and employment resources. Early intervention has led to better outcomes, including family reunification, shorter paths to independent living, and improved overall wellness.
Community support is at the heart of Home Horizon Outreach. Ongoing contributions from local donors and Foundations like the Blue Mountain Village Foundation allow us to meet immediate needs and connect youth with long-term resources. This grant will strengthen our ability to provide personalized, consistent support—empowering youth to overcome adversity and build stable, independent futures.
Pam Osmond
Blue Mountain Village Foundation 2024 Spring Grant Recipients
Blue Mountain Village Foundation is pleased to announce $25,800 in funding to the following organizations and their programs:
Elephant Thoughts, Collingwood Youth Centre Culinary Service Program, $4,000
First Presbyterian Church, Closing Social Gaps “Love Your Neighbour”, $3,500
Home Horizon Georgian Triangle Residential Services, Outreach Program for Homeless Youth, $3,000
Magic of Children in the Arts, School Arts Supplies, $1,800
Meaford Culture Foundation, Empowering Youth through Arts & Culture program, $2,000
My Friends House, Food Security Program, $4,000
The Gilbert Centre for Social & Support Services, QT Connection Network $4,000
United Way Simcoe Muskoka, Urgent Needs Fund, $3,500
Blue Mountain Village Foundation Gifts $15,000 to South Georgian Bay Community Initiatives March 31, 2023 as part of the 2022/23 Winter/Spring Grant Funding Program
The following succesful agencies are: Home Horizon-Barbara Weider House, My Friend's House, YMCA Simcoe Muskoka, Living Better With Parkinsons, First Presbyterian Church and Georgian Bay Home Share.
“Thank you, Blue Mountain Village Foundation for your support and donation! This funding will be used to help support Home Horizon’s Outreach Program for Homeless Youth. Our program works with vulnerable youth in the community to identify safe living spaces and provides direction to assist them to regain control of their lives. Since the launch of this program, we have served 200+ youth and 75+ adults, with over 2,000 services interactions (referrals, goal setting, supplies, workshops, etc). Through our Outreach Worker we have supplied 400+ meals and 300+ gift cards for food and essentials such as: tents, sleeping bags, food, hygiene products, jackets, hand warmers, clothes, and much more. The program provides support and advocacy for mental health, physical health, legal, financial aid, rental/tenant advocacy and referrals to other housing agencies, helping one of our most vulnerable populations to avoid falling through the cracks, providing every individual who encounters our Outreach Worker the chance to feel safe and heard. We are the only organization in our area providing this service and supporting youth where they are to build trust and produce results.” Deb Piggott, Fund Development Manager
Living Better with Parkinson’s is a non-profit organization supporting people living with PD, caregiver, family members and the medical community in south Georgian Bay promoting physical activity…every day.
In so doing, Living Better with Parkinson’s and the TIME™ team have partnered with the Integrated Movement Disorders Program (IMDP) at the University Health Network in Toronto to pilot the new TIME-PD™ exercise program. Living Better with Parkinson’s (LBWP) is very excited to be the first to offer TIME-PD™ in Collingwood!
"On behalf of Living Better with Parkinson’s, a heartfelt thank you to the Blue Mountain Village Foundation for recognizing the importance of supporting the TIME pilot program in conjunction with LBWP. It is through this kind of support that significantly makes a difference to people living with Parkinson’s Disease, their families, and medical professionals in our community." Catherine Smart, Executive Director
Over the next decade, 1.5% to 2% of the population over 60 years will live with Parkinson’s Disease who live in North America. That is more than Multiple Sclerosis, Muscular Dystrophy, and ALS combined. The South Georgian Bay (SGB) population is growing rapidly, and the demographics are aging as it attracts more residents to the area. In this decade, People with Parkinson’s (PWP) in SGB are expected to double.
“Because Home Share is new to the area, we are spending considerable time explaining the Home Share concept to local organizations and individuals. Funding from the Blue Mountain Village Association grant will enable us to continue to market and promote Georgian Bay Home Share through various print, social media platforms and other avenues. We will also be looking into employing someone with computer and technical skills to assist us with setting up and operating computer programs that will stream line our work, making us more efficient and organized as we grow. Thank you for supporting Georgian Bay Home Share. We are grateful for the confidence that you have shown our project by providing us with this grant." – Carol & Diana, Founders, Georgian Bay Home Share
“My Friend’s House is so grateful for the incredible support from Blue Mountain Village Foundation. We are expanding 3 meals a day in our Crisis Shelter for women and children, to include a Healthy Meal Program that is based on healing trauma from abuse and violence. This program will focus on nutrition, cooking skills, growing vegetables in our garden to sharing meals and connecting our residents with staff to share celebrations. The grant from BMVF will go directly towards the supplies needed for the program and celebrations. Our cost of food has risen dramatically – we have a $250 weekly budget – and at capacity we feed 6 adults and 6 children 21 meals a week. This includes $40 a week for milk. With BMVF support My Friend’s House dollars will stretch to ensure our Healthy Meal Program provides nutritious meals and we can continue to truly help the women and children at our shelter heal from their trauma." Jane Truemner, Senior Development Manager
"The YMCA is very grateful for the support of the Blue Mountain Village Foundation for the Collingwood YMCA and Wasaga Beach YMCA Youth Leaders Program. The Youth Leaders Program is an exciting, engaging program for youth grades 5 through 12, opening doors to meet other youth in the community and to build leadership, problem solving and communications skills. Youth participate in service-learning projects, have the opportunity to acquire training and certifications, attend retreats, as well as volunteer hours for secondary school.
Youth in the leadership program make a difference in our YMCAs and communities. Funding from the Blue Mountain Village Foundation will help the YMCA to promote healthy lifestyles, offer mental health supports to young people, and to promote social-emotional well-being. Funding will also support financial assistance for youth memberships in order to allow youth to attend the leadership program at the YMCA regardless of their financial situation." Dale Rowe, Manager, Annual Campaign and Community Engagement
“A big thank-you to the Blue Mountain Village Foundation for your contribution to our Love-Your-Neighbour Programme. This programme addresses the growing issue of food insecurity in our community and currently supports up to 25 families ( over 80 persons) each week who have been identified as needing assistance – mainly food, but we also try to assist with clothing, furniture and equipment as funds permit. Our weekly food distribution involves the delivery of food hampers to the families with food donated by local businesses and supporters and food we purchase using the funds donated by charitable organizations, our volunteers and our church members for this purpose.” Denman Lawrenson
Blue Mountain Village Foundation Gifts $15,000 to South Georgian Bay Community Initiatives April 20, 2022 as part of the 2021/22 Winter/Spring Grant Funding Program
The following succesful agencies are: Breaking Down Barriers, Elephant Thoughts, Events for Life, Home Horizon-Barbara Weider House, Ledge Leadership, Living Wish Foundation, Meaford Food Bank, Rainbows Georgian Triangle, Theatre Collingwood, United Way Simcoe Muskoka.