By Kevin Sabo For the Castor Advance
The Town of Castor’s Care 4 Kids program will be seeing some changes over the summer months.
The Care 4 Kids program has been administered by the town for the last several years after being started by a group of local churches in town sometime in the past. The goal of the program is to support families who can’t afford to pay for recreational programs for youth.
The funds, which are 100 per cent donated to the program, are running low with the program account dropping to just $1,200 at the end of May. As the program currently funds $2,000 - $3,000 worth of funding a year to help parents pay sports fees, the situation is dire and the need for donations to the program is huge.
In an effort to make the Care 4 Kids budget extend further and help more families, some updated guidelines under consideration are to cap the funding at $250 per child for each family annually and requires anyone applying for funding to also apply for the Canadian Tire Jumpstart program and Kidsport. Both are programs that help get kids into sports by covering some, or all, registration and equipment fees.
“We would like people to try other sources of funding first,” said Natasha Bozek, Castor Minor Sports Director.
Care 4 Kids will still continue and will switch to a role of helping top up the other sources of funding.
“We don’t want to see anyone not participate because they can’t afford the extra $50.”
Bozek was quick to point out that the program is not shutting down, however, by limiting funds given out and having parents look to other sources of funding to participate in sport, the limited funds that the program has can be maximized to help a larger number of people.
The updated guideline will be complete and in place this summer prior to hockey fees being due on Sept. 1. If funding from Kidsport or Jumpstart is pending for parent’s past the September 1 deadline the late fees will be waived.
For further information about Care 4 Kids please contact Natasha Bozek at the Castor town office at 403-882-3225. For information and or applications to Kidsport see www.kidsportcanada.ca and for the Canadian Tire Jumpstart Program see jumpstart.canadiantire.ca.