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in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, A pr il 7, 20 22 | 18 www.concretetrimmings.com CONCRETE FREE ESTIMATES 905-844-5518 1-888-944-5518 uality At Its Best! Call Fernando 1-888-944-5518 www 1-888-944-5518 • DRIVEWAYS • FRENCH CURBS • PATIOS • STEPS • WALKWAYS • GARAGE FLOORS ExposEd aggrEgatE (pebble) The Oakvillegreen Con- servation Association says a $100,000 grant from the province kept them alive during the dark days of the pandemic. Like many not-for-profit organizations, the local en- vironmental charity suf- fered greatly with the ar- rival of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdowns in 2020. "As a not-for-profit fund- ing is always a struggle and COVID made it even worse," said Oakvillegreen program director Beatriz Gomez during a celebrato- ry virtual meeting. "Due to COVID we had some staff layoffs and on top of that we had to reduce the hours for a lot of our staff." To keep things going the group ultimately decided to apply for a Resilient Communities Fund Grant through the province's Trillium Foundation in late 2020. They received the fund- ing in December of the same year. Gomez said the money allowed the group to keep moving forward and fight- ing for the environment. She said the charity was able to hire one person spe- cifically for volunteer co- ordination and fundrais- ing, which helped generate revenue. They were also able to invest in database soft- ware, which allowed Oak- villegreen to increase and improve its volunteer man- agement. This in turn led to an in- crease in volunteer partici- pation by 151 per cent, said Gomez. The funding also al- lowed for the creation of a number of interactive classroom presentations, which could be accessed virtually by local schools since in person presenta- tions were no longer an op- tion. Gomez said the charity was also able to launch a new upgraded website as well as carry out tree plant- ings and invasive species removal events. "We're extremely thank- ful to the Ontario Trillium Foundation...These funds kept us alive basically," said Gomez. "We believe in what we do, and this helped us to reach the community, en- gage volunteers and make sure people were still en- gaged in nature." Those present also heard from Oakville North-Burlington MPP Ef- fie Triantafilopoulos who called Oakvillegreen com- munity champions who have been leading the way in local environmental pro- tection and community stewardship for the past 22 years. "You've engaged hun- dreds of volunteers in our community, inspiring them to make a difference," said Triantafilopoulos. "I know it has been a very difficult year for com- munity and charitable groups in Oakville as it has been for people across On- tario. The funds that our government is providing through the foundation are designed to help organiza- tions, such as Oakville- green, rebuild after the last two years of the pandemic." For more information about Oakvillegreen visit https://www.oakville- green.org. 'THESE FUNDS KEPT US ALIVE' DAVID LEA dlea@metroland.com NEWS OAKVILLEGREEN GRATEFUL FOR $100,000 TRILLIUM GRANT