West Island Community Shares wants to help even more

West Island Community Shares’ annual fundraising campaign is in full swing and the agency has noticed an increase in awareness as well as donors more interested in the concept of proximity impact.

“The idea of proximity impact is that people who give money to charity are becoming more interested in where and how the money is spent,” said WICS executive director Caroline Tison. “By giving locally, people can easily see where their donations go and who benefits.”

Tison also credits the fact that 100 per cent of all donations to WICS go to one of the 36 non-profit West Island agencies that receive funds from WICS, “an aspect that donors appreciate since they know the money is going to the right source.”

A recent testimonial for WICS made by an anonymous donor was “that by giving to WICS, it ensures that the funds can help large and diverse needs.”

“It has been economically tough these last few years but West Islanders are very generous and want to help out their neighbours,” Tison said adding that one out of every six residents uses the services provided by the many groups and agencies.

Recently, almost 200 people attended WICS auction benefit that raised $82,000 in a single evening. Some of the auction items included VIP tickets to the Osheaga Festival and a wine tour of Slovenia.

WICS President Vincent Lamoureux noted that the sixth annual live and silent auction benefit is “a big part of our campaign and our goal this year is to be able to give an increase in funding to the groups we currently support. If possible, we’d also like to add one or two new groups to our roster with the aim of helping more West Islanders in need.”

WICS will be launching its annual Tree of Wishes campaign at Fairview where eight companies will decorate trees and those with the most votes will win the coveted title of best Christmas tree and all money raised will go towards the campaign of raising a million plus dollars by next spring.

Tison, who will be celebrating ten years with WICS shortly, noted that the time has flown and she and her staff are still invigorated and committed to helping others. “We are here because it is important that West Island citizens can have a quality of life even if something happens to them and they need to reach out for help,” said the executive director.