Kamloops Division Fundraising for Lytton

The devastation of fires in British Columbia in June included the village of Lytton which went from smoke to ashes in 23 minutes. Sadly, the fire that consumed Lytton also took two lives. The damage estimate to the town is $78 million. Some members of Lytton Detachment, RCMP lost their homes and their possessions. Toxic fumes from the rubble contaminated the air and for three days prevented officials from entering the village to identify remains.

Fire fighting crews from Mission, B.C. were the first to attend the scene and remained for a week. One of the firefighters, from his time in Lytton, expressed his admiration for the resiliency of the displaced citizens. He said that even though they had lost everything, their priority was helping support the firefighters in any way they could, offering food and drink when they met.

In this same vein we can be extremely proud of our Association and more particularly the work of Kamloops Division in reaching out to assist Lytton Detachment staff in their recovery from this tragedy.

Kamloops Division Treasurer, Ken Parent working with other Division team members has been able to generate substantial funding to assist the members. Ken’s report follows and as you will note donations for the funding came from within and outside the Association including examples of the generosity of strangers and generosity from the Bank of Montreal (BMO).

A preamble (update) to Ken’s report comes from Kamloops Vice-President, Bob Stephens,

“I am forwarding this report from our treasurer, Ken Parent as an interim report on our funding for the members, vets and widow. Could you please have this information released nationally in order to inform our generous contributors of the current status of our endeavor. To date we have issued funds to each individual in the group in the amount of $6100.00 each for a total $61000.00. Ken’s report is complete as of today.

Ken’s Report:
Here’s what we’ve done so far here in Kamloops;

• As of today, we have distributed just over $51,000 through our division alone (not counting what National has sent out also). This has been evenly distributed to the 5 regular members, 2 Public Servants, 2 Vets and 1 Vets widow.
• We have received over 200 separate donations from all across the country, including 17 various Vets Divisions who collected en-mass and forwarded to us. Also, numerous regular members, Vets, Veterans widows and widowers as well as a goodly number from the general public contributed amounts from $25 to $2,000!!!! The generosity, to me, is absolutely astounding!
• We still have roughly $10,000 to distribute (with the odd donation still making its way to us), however we have to wait for a number of these cheques to clear through the bank before we can distribute anything further. This SHOULD be done over the next week or so.
• The main branch of the Kamloops BMO has been INCREDIBLE in helping to first, set up an account on a moment’s notice, and then second, to issue Drafts for all the people with no charge. Special credit should go to Elise McConechy who is one of the Banking Assistants at BMO. So far, due to the bank’s generosity, we have only incurred $45.00 in expenses (that our division is covering) to distribute some of the donations through registered mail.
• As I had previously stated, it is truly an outstanding testament to the brother/sisterhood that we all enjoy as members of the RCMP family when we see the outpouring of support our people have received in this trying time.

Ken Parent
Treasurer
Kamloops Division
RCMP Veterans’ Association