Saskatchewan, Canada, 2014-7-16 — /EPR Retail News/ — The Co-operative Retailing System (CRS) is working together to support members of our communities confronted with the challenges of flood waters.
“Our thoughts are with the residents and businesses in Saskatchewan and Manitoba dealing with the impact of flood waters,” said Federated Co-operatives Limited CEO Scott Banda. “We’re all neighbours. We support each other in the good times and the bad, working together now in co-operation to clean up our homes and communities.”
Local co-operatives – including Yorkton Co-op, Churchbridge Co-op, Gateway Co-op and Prairie Co-op – have donated $8,000 so far to the Canadian Red Cross to aid in disaster relief.
“This disaster has hit home for many Co-op members and employees,” said Yorkton General Manager Bruce Thurston. “Co-ops in the Yorkton area have come together because we’re locally invested. We live where you live and work where you work.”
This total will be matched by FCL, on behalf of the CRS, as part of the five-year, $1 million gift to the Canadian Red Cross in 2013. The donation enhances community-based emergency responses throughout Western Canada and consists of $100,000 per year to preposition goods and train volunteers. An additional $100,000 per year is available to match local retail Co-ops’ emergency donations.
“The Canadian Red Cross has recruited and trained more than 350 disaster management volunteers across Western Canada within the first of our five-year partnership with FCL and the CRS,” said Sue Phillips, director general, Western Canada. “Thanks to the foresight and leadership of FCL and CRS, Red Cross volunteers were ready to respond immediately to the current flooding in Saskatchewan and Manitoba with prepositioned goods such as cots, blankets, clean-up and hygiene kits.”
Co-op is the local business owned by members of the community. We live where you live and work where you work. That’s why we care. During these challenging times, there are efforts to keep stores open a little longer, get product to stores one way or another and help wherever possible.
Borderland Co-op General Manager Jason Schenn told The Whitewood Herald that employees’ response and initiative to open stores “likely saved more than a few homes from worse disaster.”
“Those 48 hours were not about sales … it was about being there to help because it was the right thing to do,” Schenn said.
The Red Cross donation also helped support the disaster response in southern Alberta in 2013.
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