By Tristan Tuckett (@TristanTuckett on Twitter)

Scotiabank Donates $30,000 to Lethbridge Family Services

Mar 4, 2016 | 11:43 AM

LETHBRIDGE – Lethbridge Family Services has received their largest private donation since they started the Advancement in Community Relations department back in 2014.

On Friday, Scotiabank handed over $30,000 to the local organization.

Of that money, $20,000 will go towards helping those with developmental disabilities to improve or maintain their mobility through an expansion of the walking track through the LFS facility.

Director of the DaCapo Program, Diane Kotkas, points out there are many benefits to the walking track. “Individuals that are in wheelchairs can now weight-bear and move, so it has great benefits for physical health in terms of cardiovascular and/or even prevent muscle atrophy and things of that nature.” 

Kotkas adds there are also emotional benefits, as the walking track provides freedom and independence to individuals to walk through the facility unassisted. There’s also emotional benefits as they get great joy out of using the apparatus.

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The other $10,000 from Scotiabank will be used to provide Syrian refugees with much needed dental care. Sarah Amies, the Director of Immigrant Services, says they are seeing some pretty awful conditions in the mouths of refugees.

When they were forced to flee Syria, they ended up in refugee camps or as urban refugees. “85 per cent have been urban refugees, which means they have not had access to sanitation, clean water, food, medical services at all, toothpaste and toothbrushes would be part of that. So you can imagine, three or four years of not cleaning ones teeth, absolutely no dental health care whatsoever, no fluoride, no nothing, people’s teeth are falling out of their head,” explains Amies.

LFS relies heavily on donations from private funders and corporate partners to help them meet the needs of the most vulnerable in our community.