RBC has selected the Elora Centre for Environmental Excellence to receive a grant of $5,000 to ensure that residents will have access to clean fresh drinking water today and tomorrow.
The organization is one of ten organizations in the Ontario South West region to receive a RBC Blue Water Community Action grant this year. The presentation took place on April 22.
The money will go for the Aqua’s Water Well Adventures program for educating young children about the water cycle and highlighting the importance of caring for the environment. The program not only inspires children to educate their parents but also instills values of environmental conservation that are carried into adulthood.
“The RBC Blue Water Project is pleased to support the Elora Centre for Environmental Excellence, who will help educate the community on methods to protect our most precious resource, water,” said Bruce Gehlen, RBC’s regional vice president.
Mark Burton, manager of the Fergus RBC branch, said, “We’ve heard a great deal lately about Earth Day. It’s been on the News, in titles lines of websites, and on TV. Our kids have been learning about ecology n school and what effects our lifestyle has had on our planet.
“The truth of the matter is for the past many years, we haven’t been great guests on this earth.”
He said as Canada’s largest company and corporate donor, RBC is focusing its donation efforts to ensure “We are making sustainable, meaningful and measurable impacts on the areas we support including water and the environment.”
As for a donation dealing with water, Burton said, “At RBC, we believe everything has to do with water because water is fundamental to the sustainability of all life on the planet.
The RBC grants, ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 each are available to support local and community projects in Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean that are dedicated to watershed protection.
The ECEE had its start in the village in the 1990s, but has now branched out from there. It is currently doing a Well Wise children’s water education program in Bruce County elementary schools.
The program includes questions and answers, music, a water droplet super hero named Aqua, and about about Aqua.
The presenter also shows the children a groundwater model demonstration to show how water travels and how waste water and impurities can get into a well.
Program manager Lynda Baumsinger thanked the RBC for its donation and and noted its help has been “instrumental” to the program’s success.
For more information on the RBC Blue Water Project, as well as grant guidelines and online applications, visit www.rbc.com/bluewater.
