Happy New Year!
Welcome to the first eblast of 2024!
Last year was a blast! We achieved so much and had a lot of fun on our journey to providing safe and affordable homeownership in the Okanagan Valley! Thank you to all the staff, volunteers, donors and shoppers that contribute to our success.
We ended 2023 with the announcement of two 50/50 winners. The online draw was our largest jackpot to date with the winner taking $33,550 and the ReStore one was the highest pot in 2023 at $6099 The first draw of 2024 has already started and we are hoping with new ticket packages to blast through the sales we achieved in 2023. Last year the amount raised by the 50/50 was $65,437.
The individual part of the Jingle Bell Build competition wrapped up our last fundraising event for 2023 with the winner receiving a PlayStation 5. With a new format and many organizations enrolling for the corporate night and individual kit sales we raised $40,000! Thank you to all our participants that made it an awesome success.
This past weekend I had the pleasure of working alongside many volunteers that came out in force to help at our first bottle drive of 2024. The weather was kind to us, we had lots of fun and received great community engagement raising $3322.40.
The Meaning of Home contest opened on the 8th January, this national contest is open to children in grades 4,5 and 6 who are invited to submit an entry about what home means to them. Grand prize winners receive a $30,000 grant for their local Habitat and all winners receive a tablet for themselves and a pizza party for their class. More details are available in this eblast.
Elevating our profile locally is critical to raising funds and ultimately results in helping more families. Our calendar for 2024 is already getting busy, if you are interested in being part of these events, please watch out for communication providing details of our volunteer opportunities.
As you may be aware from the 1st January Habitat for Humanity Southeast BC and Habitat for Humanity Okanagan have agreed in principle to a shared service agreement which will advance and formalize their commitment to work together and share services with the goal of improving service delivery in the British Columbia Southern Interior. I have taken on the role as acting executive director for Habitat Southeast B.C. and will be splitting my time between the two regions. I’m looking forward to exploring how we can leverage our combined strengths to deliver more homes.
Have a great January!
Andrea Manifold
CEO Habitat Okanagan