More kids get to go to camp because of the Saskatchewan Auto Dealers Association (SADA) and their $30,000 donation to Camp Easter Seal during their annual Board of Directors meeting.
SADA donates annually to Camp Easter Seal. The money is raised through fundraising done during the meetings.
To date, SADA has donated $315,000 to Camp Easter Seal. In addition, SADA has donated a wheel chair accessible bus and a wheel chair accessible pontoon boat.
This year’s donation is going straight to covering the costs of sending kids to camp. It costs $1,500 to send a child to camp for a week and the camp tries to send 700 kids a year through June to August. Kids do not pay to go to camp so all the money raised through fundraising and donations covers the costs for the kids.
Brad Kraft, fund development manager with the Saskatchewan Abilities Council, is blown away by the support from SADA each year.
“It’s so wonderful to have a province wide impact like that from them and for us as well. By having them name us as their charity of choice, its really special because we know that they will support us in some way and this year, much like other years, they’ve come in well over our expectations,” he said.
SADA is an organization that looks after the new car franchises in the province of Saskatchewan. They currently have 139 members, accounting for 94 per cent of all dealerships in the province.
Maurice Plemel, chairman of SADA, said that after going to the camp and watching both kids and the councillors, it is very easy to see why donating to Camp Easter Seal is a good idea.
“If you talk to some of the councillors and a lot of these councillors are first and second year university students that spend the time out there in the summertime helping to look after these kids and the benefits they get from helping these kids out and the joy they bring to these kids lives.” He said.
Although Camp Easter Seal sees 700 kids a summer come through the camp, there is still a waiting list for would be campers.
Kraft encourages everyone to visit abilitiescouncil.sk.ca to become a member or pledge an amount for the camp.
