Would You Like to Help Create or Support an East Shore Emergency Fund?

An invitation, written by Mautz Kroker

It has been over a month since my little house burned down. Ever since that day, I’ve faced an incredible amount of support and help and I feel thankful and blessed. Thank you so much to everyone who has assisted or donated in the past and those who continue to be such a support to me.

Now with a bit of distance and cooler mind I began to ask myself: What if this happens again, not to me but to somebody else? What if another house burns down? What if there is a flood or a forest fire? What if a family member suddenly dies due to an accident or unexpected illness? Everyone who faces a situation like this will need help, support, compassion and money to deal with the consequences.

Thinking about this and what happened to me, I would like to go ahead with a community project that will include all communities on the East Shore: Riondel, Kootenay and Pilot Bay, Crawford Bay, Gray Creek, Boswell, Sirdar, Wynndel and all inhabitants who live along our beautiful shore of the lake.

I would like to create an EAST SHORE EMERGENCY FUND and I am looking for people who want help and work on this project.

The main idea of this fund is to collect money on a regular basis that will be used for emergency help in the case of a personal or community catastrophe. There are approximately 2000 people living on the East Shore (Area A), permanently or part time. If only 1000 of them pay $5 each month into this fund we could collect $60,000 a year to help out aggrieved people in times of disaster.

Even if a person, house or property is insured, aggrieved people will have to face huge additional and unexpected costs. Some community members might not have as many friends or networks that could support them. $5 a month for assisting in the time of an emergency would help immeasurably.

Here is a short breakdown regarding this fund:

• The fund will be managed by a nonprofit society via volunteer effort.
• I would hope to create a board with maybe two inhabitants of each community, ideally coming from different social/age/economic etc levels.
• The directors of the board could be elected once a year through an annual general meeting.
• The first activity of the society will be to work out a charter or mandate regarding decision making and collection and distribution of funds in case of an emergency.
• Every inhabitant of the East Shore will be asked to provide ideas, input and suggestions towards working out a good and reliable charter for the fund and society.
• The society will give a report each month to the public regarding its activities, decisions, and improvements of the fund. All activities will be completely transparent to the public
• The collected money will be held in an account which will be controlled by an independent financial institution like the Credit Union and perhaps a notary if needed. It will be guaranteed that no member of the board nor society can take personal advantage of the fund.
• The fund shall be available in case of a disaster for every party on the East Shore, no matter their financial or social standing.

The long term idea would also be to arrange an agreement with financial institutions about very low interest loans to help rebuild a house or property or finance crucial needs. There could be also arrangements with companies to provide help and service free of charge for a certain amount of time or to a certain financial goalpost. There are many possibilities to accumulate help.

I really hope that we can find a way to make this idea work out and I’m looking for people who are interested in this. After my experience, I can only say that the more we can set up to help support each other, the less burden we put upon ourselves at the time of a disaster.

Five dollars a month equates to the cost of maybe one coffee or drink but can provide a huge relief to someone in a time of need. We all together can act as friends and supportive community members. I hope to do the legwork to get this set up so that this active support within our community is easier and more streamlined for those in need in the future. I am so grateful for the support I have received and see this as one way to pay it forward.

If interested in this new fund, please contact Mautz Kroker at 250-551-4405/mautz.kr@gmail.com, Ingrid Baetzel at 250-505-7697/iazbaetzel@gmail.com or Sharon Webster at riondelmom@gmail.com before February 28, 2022! Thank you.