Rotary Club of Kelowna donates two vehicles to community groups

The Rotary Club of Kelowna presented $45,000 in donations Tuesday at the Coast Capri Hotel to a pair of local non-profits that will use the funds to buy new vehicles.

The Bridge Youth and Family Services and the Silver Lake Forest Education Society will use the vehicles to transport their clients.

“Our main four areas are youth, the elderly, the disabled and the disadvantaged," said Bruce Wilson of the Rotary Club Kelowna.

"Those are the four that we concentrate on, so when we get a request to our donation committee, we address it from that standpoint, and from there we see how many people are going to be affected."

The Bridge says it supports over 1,100 people in the community a year.

"This van will allow us to transport people to their appointments, get them where they need to be in an easy way, and it also allows us to have our staff move between sites. We have eight sites here in Kelowna, so this van is really helpful for us,” said Bridge executive director John Yarschenko.

The Silver Lake Forest Education Society says the addition of a new SUV is a game changer, especially for their summer kids program at Silver Lake.

"It’s very difficult to ask staff members to use personal vehicles to transport kids and also to make sure we have uniform safety. So with this vehicle, we are replacing a mini-van that the camp has had for over 10 or 12 years now," said Russ Paton.

"Just going up and down the forestry road and in and out of camp is really hard on a lightweight vehicle, so this vehicle gives us a four-wheel drive vehicle that we know is going to be able to transport campers in any kind of emergency situation or medical situation."

Under the leadership of a new president, the Rotary Club of Kelowna will begin a new season in July and will be on the lookout for the next local organization in need of community donations.