SOUTHLAND’s Partnership with Kids Cancer Care Makes a Huge Impact

Earlier this year, Southland Transportation partnered with Kids Cancer Care Foundation of Alberta to provide bussing transportation to Camp Kindle. We caught up with Genine Neufeld, Director of Philanthropy at Kids Cancer Care to see what’s been happening since we made our donation.

Hi Genine! Thanks for making the time to chat with us. What’s been happening since we last spoke?

"Kids Cancer Care had a great end to 2022 with many donors coming through to support our programs during the holiday season. We are now well into planning for this year and launched our summer camp registration just last week!"

How is the planning coming along for the summer camps? Are there any volunteer opportunities?

"Summer camp planning has begun. We will have four weeks of summer camps plus two teen camps, two family camps and one moms-only camp this year!

Kids Cancer Care relies heavily on volunteers for all our work whether it is year round programs like our exercise therapy, tutoring and more, or individual weeks of summer camp. Anyone who is interested in learning more about volunteering can contact Kylie at [email protected]."

Southland Transportation was so excited to provide the ‘gift of transportation’ to Kids Cancer Care and Camp Kindle. What did this gift mean to your charity?

"Kids Cancer Care raises every dollar for our programs from the community as government funding accounts for less than 2% of our revenue. Therefore, the old adage of “a dollar saved is a dollar earned” is a motto we live by at Kids Cancer Care. Your gift of transportation means we could stretch donations from donors even further and send more kids to camp while caring for more families in the crisis of childhood cancer. It also helps ease the financial burden on families too.

Dual-income families often become one-income households as one parent is forced to quit work to care for their sick child. At the same time, these families are incurring out-of-pocket expenses to the tune of 38% of their gross annual household income to care for their child (i.e., fuel, hospital parking, meals-on-the-go). Your gift of transportation spares these families from having to make a costly trip out to Camp Kindle, enabling them to save their much-needed funds.

Instead of dropping their child at Camp Kindle they dropped them off in the city and their camp experience begins the moment they climb on the bus provided by Southland. I recall one mom sharing that her daughter called out from the bus window upon her return from camp “I didn’t miss you at all” which clearly demonstrates the impact camp has on kids. And while your gift provides the vehicle for children to bond, a single bus is much kinder on our planet than hundreds of cars making a long trip to Camp Kindle."

Wow. Thank you for helping me truly appreciate how our gift helped families… and the planet!

We have a group of amazing people here at Southland. How else can our team help Kids Cancer Care?

"We would love your support again this year to get kids to and from camp! We also have volunteering opportunities for individuals (as above) or groups (contact [email protected]). And we have some events that would be fabulous for Southland employees to participate in! Kindle Pursuit is a 4-person team obstacle race in May and Cycle Challenge is a three-day supported road ride for road cyclists. Or if craft beer and BBQ ribs sounds better, you and your team could join us at Barley & Smoke on August 27. Please share these with your team and we’d love to get them involved."

Those all sound like a lot of fun, especially the obstacle race in May!

To wrap up our interview, do you have any warm stories you’d like to share?

"So many stories! ???Here is Meghan’s story and you will find others in that same section of our website." https://www.kidscancercare.ab.ca/stories/2022/07/meghans-story/

To learn more about Kids Cancer Care visit https://www.kidscancercare.ab.ca/

To learn more about Camp Kindle visit https://campkindle.ca/