BC Hospitality Foundation has funds for those in medical need

VANCOUVER-British Columbia's Hospitality Foundation is in the rare position of having money to donate and nowhere to donate it.

The nearly four-year-old foundation needs to spread the word about its existence and the ability to help the province's hotel and restaurant hospitality community with medical related expenses.

Alan Sacks, the foundation's business development manager, estimates that only about 20 per cent of BC's hospitality industry knows of the foundation's work.

To date, the people that know about the foundation are the leaders, not the frontline workers.

"We need to reach the core of the industry, which are people in the shop floor-the cooks, wait staff, dishwashers and baristas," Sacks said.

"What I need to do is get the word out to the restaurant managers and supervisors. We've got to let the people in restaurants and bars and HR directors in hotels that we can help."

Nothing is beyond the consideration of the foundation, whether it be those faced with medical costs due to illness, those needing a wheelchair ramp or elevator at their home, or any other unexpected financial costs.

Recipients must have worked in the restaurant or hotel industry in BC or the Yukon in the last five years and the foundation must be the last resort for funding, meaning the recipient has exhausted all other insurance means. Maximum funding is $50,000 per application.

To date, the foundation has helped four people in the industry with medical related expenses, as well as a number of post-secondary hospitality student scholarships.

Sacks said one of the quickest ways to receive money is to let the foundation know of individual fundraising events taking place at bars and restaurants around the province for anyone in medical need.

The foundation will match funds raised at these events, up to $5,000, and a cheque can be issued quickly to assist the recipient.

Two such cases are cancer patients Winnie Lam and Wendy Collins, who received money after friends staged fundraising events.

Collins, an 18-year employee of the Muddy Waters Pub in Nanaimo, received matching funds following her cancer diagnosis. Collins lost her battle with cancer in January 2010.

The foundation has also assisted Michael Willingham, a wine agent who needed a diaphragm pacemaker following a severe stroke in early 2005.

Anne Tyler, a group sales representative for Coast Hotels and Resorts, received support from the foundation to improve her quality of life after she contracted cancer. Tyler died in December 2008.

"We know there are people out there who would be applying for funds and groups running fundraisers that would be eligible for our matching funds program," Sacks said.

More information, along with application forms, is available at www.bchospitalityfoundation.com.