Wednesday, November 16, 2016
COQUITLAM – When the Coquitlam Foundation established the Coquitlam Search and Rescue Society Fund in 2003, it was seeded with an initial contribution of $20,000. Fast forward 13 years, and the fund has tripled in size.
This growth accomplished in large part through public donations, allowed the foundation to present a cheque for $60,000 from the fund to society representatives this morning—the funds supporting the completion of the society’s new, state-of-the-art Mobile Command Centre (MCC).
Official dedication of the new MCC will take place at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 19, at Coquitlam’s Town Centre Fire Hall yard, 1300 Pinetree Way.
“Coquitlam Search and Rescue believes strongly that our new MCC will be the most advanced in B.C. and will enjoy pride of place amongst local SAR teams,” says the society’s Ian MacDonald. “Once again we thank the Coquitlam Foundation for being one of our longest-standing and most generous community partners.”
For its part, the foundation is honoured to have been trusted to manage the society’s funds and is especially proud of the role it played in bringing the MCC project to fruition.
“It is a real pleasure to assist an outstanding community organization,” says Ron Grender, chair of the foundation’s grants committee, and one of several directors at the presentation ceremony. “The Mobile Command Centre is a project that will really enhance the Search and Rescue Society’s capabilities. In fact, it’s a community-enhancement project that will benefit our entire region.”
Coquitlam Search and Rescue was formed in 1972 as a result of a search on Burke Mountain by North Shore Rescue and members of the Coquitlam RCMP detachment because there was no local team. Over the years, the team has grown into about 45 active members. The team is called out to roughly 30 to 40 search and/or rescue operations each year, including mutual aid calls to other teams in the Lower Mainland, and other areas in the Province of British Columbia, and in Washington State.
The Coquitlam Foundation manages $2.8 million in 29 foundation-directed and donor-advised funds. The foundation always welcomes donations to any of its donor-advised or foundation-directed funds, which can be made through its website, www.coquitlamfoundation.com. The Coquitlam Foundation is registered with Canada Revenue as a charitable organization, No. 890762347 RR0001.