How local charities are benefitting from Catch the Ace

When Big Brothers Big Sisters of Sault Ste. Marie president Glyn Heatley took the stage at the Esquire Club following the $1.3 million jackpot win Thursday night, he told the crowd that his charitable organization is currently in a state of flux.

The District of Sault Ste. Marie Social Services Administration Board (DSSMSSAB) will be ceasing to offer services at the Boston Avenue hub it shares with Big Brothers Big Sisters, meaning that the program – which provides children with positive role models – will follow suit, leaving their home at 46 Boston Ave. by the end of the year.

“We have made a lot of friends in the neighbourhood, and we’ll miss seeing them everyday,” Heatley told the Esquire Club crowd. “But we will, however, still offer our services to the families in the Boston Avenue area from wherever we end up moving to.”

Thanks to Catch the Ace, which raised $1.9 million for Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Group Health Centre Trust Fund (with the funds to be split between the two charities), Heatley says that the funds should enable Big Brothers Big Sisters to pay off some bills and find a new home, while possibly helping with a planned expansion of its services to other areas of the city.

“We have struggled in an environment that is challenging for any charitable organization, and have had concerns about the ability to sustain our operations over the last couple of years,” Heatley told SooToday via email. “With the support of the Esquire Club owners, staff and patrons, we are now in a position to be able to not only provide these services, but we also plan to expand the services.”

To facilitate that expansion, Heatley says that Big Brothers Big Sisters plan on hiring a second mentor coordinator to assist in delivering its programs to more children, in addition to finding more adults to become mentors to children.

The organization is also looking into options for after-school programs that can be run in conjunction with community partners.

But Heatley says that a “fiscally responsible financial plan on how to use and invest the proceeds” is required, and even then, Big Brothers Big Sisters will still need to raise funds in order to ensure the planned expansion continues into the future.

“We still need to fundraise and we need to be prudent, to allow us to continue to offer the increased level of services for many years to come,” Heatley said.

Meanwhile, Group Health Centre Trust Fund coordinator Natasha Collett says that funds raised from Catch the Ace will go towards the trust fund’s surgery campaign.

Collett says the funds will enable Group Health Centre Trust Fund to meet its $285,000 goal.

Before Catch the Ace, the trust fund had raised “almost half” of its campaign target.

Now, the trust fund will be able to purchase even more medical equipment than originally anticipated. 

“Each year we do a different campaign, so it’s more than we’ve ever raised in any of those efforts,” Collett told SooToday. “There’s always medical equipment that we can purchase, so that’s why we like to say that it allows us to actually get equipment that we didn’t think that we’d be able to get right away.”

Catch the Ace organizers will launch a new Catch the Ace Nov. 1, which will raise money for four local charities.