The annual smoker, hosted by the Battlefords Wildlife Federation, is just one of the many community events that has been effected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizations such as the Wildlife Federation and Historic Battleford Lions Club have felt the impact, but are staying optimistic during trying times. (File photo/battlefordsNOW)

By Martin Martinson

Community fabric

‘A trickle-down effect,’ Local non-profits feeling effects of COVID-19 cancelations/postponement

Apr 2, 2020 | 3:56 PM

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a far-reaching impact on many organizations across the country, and those in the Battlefords’ community are no different.

The mandate of social distancing and the limit of 10-people per public gathering— while valid and important in limiting those exposed to the virus— have left various non-profit organizations around the community feeling the effects. In many cases, they’ve had no choice but to cancel or postpone indefinitely, key fundraising events as a result of the pandemic.

Doug Reid, past district governor with the Historic Battleford Lions Club, said these are tough times for organizations across the map; adding that the full-scale shutdown of events has been an unprecedented development.

“Non-profits like Lions rely very heavily on funding to be able to fund projects that are going on within the community. With everything being shut down, of course, all the fundraising is shut down as well, and that has a trickle-down effect,” Reid said. “[Prior to this] in our worst scenario, we’ve had to cancel fundraisers because of weather, which is a single project, not a wholesale shutdown,” he added.

In addition to limiting the resources available to support other groups in need, Reid said the effects of the shutdown are felt by countless individuals as well. A number of people in the community are reliant on the Club’s Meals on Wheels program and the annual Community Garage Sale, which has been a staple in the town over the last 10 to 15 years.

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While the postponement/cancelation of events and services are a tough pill to swallow, Reid said at the end of the day, it’s the health and safety of all that comes first.

“We have decided as a club that nothing is more important right now than taking care of ourselves,” Reid said. “Pretty well everyone is just hunkered down and hoping this gets over with sooner rather than later. The crisis is on everyone’s mind more so than ‘what are we going to do next’ [and] we’ve really just said ‘let’s take care of ourselves.’”

Daniel Delainey, with the Battlefords Wildlife Federation (BWF), said also among the events effected was the BWF’s annual smoker, which was supposed to take place Apr. 4 at Battleford Arena.

The smoker is the biggest fundraiser of the year for the Wildlife Federation, providing a large majority of the organization’s income for the year, with proceeds going towards funding programs and building costs for the year, among other things.

“The smoker itself would be probably 75 percent of our operating funds for the year, so without it we are going to have to find other ways to come up with that kind of money,” Delainey said. “We have a building to maintain and we have programs and things that all that money goes towards, so yeah, we’re not sure what we’re going to do to make up the difference.”

In addition to the smoker, the local Wildlife Federation has also seen a number of day-to-day operations and various programs within the schools put on hold for the time being.

“We have a snowshoe program, where we give snowshoes to the schools for the kids to try out, but with the schools closed, that’s not happening; and we had a pheasant program where we were hatching pheasants in the schools and that’s not going to happen either this year,” Delainey said, adding that the pheasants would have been raised to maturity and then released into the wild, with a goal of trying to establish a population in the area.

Delainey said while it is unfortunate the events and projects have to be put on the backburner for now, he is looking forward to when things can resume, with an optimistic view moving forward, adding, “we have lots of things we usually do in the fall, that we’ll be hoping still goes ahead.”

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Martin.Martinson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: MartyMartyPxP1