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Eckville business raising money for Central Alberta food banks

Prairie CDC is selling unique wall plaques with proceeds going to different food banks each week
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An Eckville business is using their work to raise money for Central Alberta food banks.

Through their company, Prairie CNC Custom Woodworking Co., Diane and Marvin Eliuk are selling handmade plaques as a way to give back during the pandemic.

The small eight inch by 8 inch wall plaques are available in two shapes, the province of Alberta or the world. Each shape features a decorative circle design and the phrase “we’re all in this together.”

Each plaque is covered in ecopoxy and each one is unique as no two are the same colour.

“When you order you get you get… they’re all very pretty,” said Diane Eliuk in a phone interview, “they have kind of a 3D look to them the way the ecopoxy looks on them.”

Usually the husband and wife team work with wood, but these plaques are made out of MDF wood in order for them to be economical for people to buy.

“We’re selling them for $20 and the profit of $10 is going to the food banks and each week we’re donating to different food banks,” explained Eliuk.

Week one saw a total of 55 plaques sold and $275 was donated to the Eckville and Rocky Mountain House food banks.

This week’s beneficiaries are the Sylvan Lake and Blackfalds food banks, followed by Rimbey and Red Deer.

Eliuk says they have five weeks worth of food banks and as time goes on they will either circle back through or add other food banks from around Central Alberta to the list.

“We’re in this COVID-19 thing right now, but we’re in this world together, we’re all in this together and it’s going to take a long time for people to bounce back from this,” commented Eliuk.

Orders can be collected through curb side pick up, curb side drop off or they can be shipped. The plaques are all sanitized and wrapped after completion.

Eliuk says as sales teeter out they may switch to monthly donations rather than weekly, but for now, she is seeing people order the plaques in multiples.

“They want to give them to their grandkids or their kids because they’re very pretty and it’s something to remember the time we’re in right now,” Eliuk said

“I am still getting calls every day, but it could be more because I want to give as much as I can to the food banks,” she added.

Those interested in placing an order for a plaque can do so by reaching out at prairiecnc@gmail.com.

The world template, which Marvin designed, has been shared with fellow woodworkers in New York, Illinois and Arizona as they want to follow in the Eliuk’s footsteps and do the same.

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