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Bird is the word for CMHA fundraising campaign

Apr 1, 2017 | 8:00 AM

The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) hopes selling birdhouses will help put a dent in its goal to raise $615.000 for its new building.

The CMHA of the Battlefords’ new fundraising campaign started with a birdhouse resembling the new building they will be moving into next month. Local artists have come together to design 30 birdhouses, and all the money will go directly to the cost of renovations to the North Battlefords Lion’s Den building, which the CMHA will move into next month.

According to the executive director of the Battlefords CMHA, Jane Zielke De Montbrun “The Great Birdhouse Auction” has blown her away so far.

“The results were absolutely amazing,” Zielke De Montbrun said. “Such creative ideas came out of this and they are so diverse, so different. Not any two are even remotely alike.”

The birdhouses are available on the Kramer Auction website and require a minimum bid of $100. Zielke De Montbrun said bids will get a tax receipt for every penny over the $100 mark.

The birdhouses are currently on display at the Chapel Gallery in North Battleford.  Zielke De Montbrun added people don’t need to buy bird houses to donate to the CMHA.

“They can call my office any time or even stop by,” Zielke De Montbrun said. “Any donation is appreciated and very significant. The total amount doesn’t matter as much as the fact they want to support people who have significant mental health problems and also to support the importance of being mentally healthy.”

Aside from “The Great Birdhouse Auction” the CMHA have a couple of other fundraisers scheduled in the coming months. Mental Health Week is the first week of May and Zielke De Montbrun has quite an interesting invent planned.

“We are going to have a tattoo event on May 2,” Zielke De Montbrun said. “People can choose from 10 different semi-colon designs to get tattooed in support of mental health. They will be $100 dollars and I don’t know if I am going to get one but, if someone wants to challenge me to get one, I might.”

Zielke De Montbrun said there will also be henna tattoos for those who don’t want to make it permanent. Like the bird houses, she added, 100 per cent of the money will go towards the CMHA as the tattoo artists are donating their time.

In addition to the tattoo event, Zielke De Montbrun said there will be a garden party fundraiser in June but, it is invitation only.

“People will attend via a significant donation,” Zielke De Montbrun said. “We have three bands lined up for the entertainment. There will be wonderful food, great craft beer and it looks like it is going to be a real blast.”

According to Zielke De Montbrun, it will take a minimum donation of $500 to get an invite to the garden party. All the money will go towards renovations for the new building the Battlefords CMHA is moving into.

Zielke De Montbrun said the plan is to be moved in by the third week of April. She added the association is still about $200,000 short of the costs, but added the move will happen if they raise the money in time or not.  

 

Greg.higgins@jpbg.ca

On Twitter @realgreghiggins.