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10 - The Oakville Beaver, Friday August 11, 2006 www.oakvillebeaver.com CLO hopes to raise $1 million over five years By Wilma Blokhuis OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Community Living Oakville (CLO) has launched a new fundraising initiative. For more than 50 years this charitable organization has been providing support to individuals who have an intellectual disability living in the Oakville community. To ensure CLO will be able to continue to provide the high quality services to the hundreds of people who rely on their support, the agency has launched an aggressive capital campaign which aims to raise $1 million over the next five years towards a more stable financial footing. "Many agencies like ours have worked with an operating deficit for a number of years or have reduced the level of service provided," said Tina Christie, CLO's new fundraising coordinator. "We have been fortunate that we have had the ability to avoid reducing service but we can't continue to operate like this." Christie, who has worked at CLO since 1992 mostly as a support worker, was named the agency's fundraising coordinator early this year. CLO must raise 20 per cent of its budget each year, said Christie, noting 80 per cent of its annual budget comes from the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services. "Until 1992, the ministry "We need to raise $200,000 a year." Petrina Nesbitt Community Living Oakville parent volunteer provided charitable organization like ours with regular cost of living increases that averaged about four per cent per year," said Christie. "This was then added to our operating budget to deal with increasing costs such as wages, utilities, food vehicle operations and other costs. "Our ministry funding has not increased since 1992 and it has actually decreased by eight per cent, yet like everyone else our costs have continued to increase," she said. "To maintain our current level of service we have to fundraise." CLO also receives financial support from the United Way of Oakville and the Ontario Trillium Foundation ­ the latter has provided the funding for Christie's position. "We need to raise $200,000 a year," said parent-volunteer Petrina Nesbitt, first vice-president of CLO and a board liaison for this fundraising initiative. Nesbitt's daughter Kaitlin participates in CLO programs and also volunteers a half day a week at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital. She is also a self-advocate attending conferences and speaking out on behalf of CLO. These funds will include pledges from the communityat-large and families supported by CLO, special events plus revenue from Best Pack, an affiliated packaging operation and CLO's efforts to operate all programs in the most efficient manner. "Some of these efforts include replacing as many light bulbs as possible with the new 13-watt fluorescent bulbs, installing programmable thermostats in all our properties to control heating and cooling cost and finding pharmacies that will provide the lowest cost possible for our medication needs," said Christie. To date, the families have contributed $75,000 plus an additional $250,000 has been BARRIE ERSKINE / OAKVILLE BEAVER $1 MILLION GOAL: Parent-volunteer Petrina Nesbitt, first vice-president of Community Living Oakville (CLO) and Tina Christie, CLO's new fundraising coordinator, shown inside CLO's workshop, hope to raise $1 million over the next five years. pledged over five years, and the business community and non-family contributions have generated $25,000 and "we've received two five-year pledges of $25,000 each," said Christie. "This brings the five-year pledges from business and non-family members to $85,000." "This year we're focusing on the community," said Nesbitt, "but first we went to the families who have a family member supported by our agency. You go to the community after you can show you're making every effort yourself to be fiscally responsible. "Other than having Tina as our fundraising coordinator, all of our fundraising is volunteer driven," said Nesbitt. "We're available to speak to service clubs, welcome tours (of CLO at 301 Wyecroft Rd.) and give lunch hour presentations," said Christie. For more information, see www.oakcl.org or call Tina Christie at 905-844-0146 ext 239. Wilma Blokhuis can be reached at blokhuis@haltonsearch.com. 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