Canucks For Kids Fund Donates $500K for COVID-19 Relief

Vancouver, B.C. - The Canucks for Kids Fund (CFKF) is pleased to announce a gift of $500,000 to support beneficiaries providing critical community needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fans are also invited to participate if they can by donating online at Canucks.com/CFKF.

"There may never be a more important time in our lifetime to support the community," said CFKF President Paolo Aquilini. "The pandemic has created extraordinary demands and with this $500,000 gift we are inviting fans to join us by donating if they are able. Canucks fans make up BC's biggest family and our family needs us now, more than ever."

The CFKF has historically focused its support on children and family programs and charities. However, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the foundation has temporarily broadened its mandate to help additional important causes in the following areas: 1) nourishing the community, 2) caring for seniors and 3) caring for youth and families.

Fans who want to support COVID-19 relief can do so by donating at Canucks.com/cfkf. Every dollar counts no matter the amount. We are all in this together. We are all Canucks.

The breakdown of the CFKF's donation is listed below. Links are also included for fans who wish to support specific organizations:

Feeding the Community ($200,000) - Supporting both the Video: Canucks for Kids Fund Donates $500K for COVID-19 and Video: Canucks for Kids Fund Donates $500K for COVID-19 , the Community Lunch Program works to feed vulnerable members in our society. The donation comes during a time when the Salvation Army has been unable to serve a hot, buffet style meal to help reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Video: Canucks for Kids Fund Donates $500K for COVID-19 ($50,000) - Committed to providing healthy food for those in need now, and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Their need is urgent, and growing in this unprecedented time.

Video: Canucks for Kids Fund Donates $500K for COVID-19 ($100,000): The funds will be used to place part-time CSE staff in various Metro Vancouver care homes in areas such as cleaning, security, food preparation, and other key support services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The deployment of workers will offer much-needed relief to care providers and allow them to augment cleaning protocols to prevent the risk of a COVID-19 outbreak at their sites.

Video: Canucks for Kids Fund Donates $500K for COVID-19 ($25,000) - Providing meals, social programs, emergency shelter and, most importantly, hope for seniors in crisis. The Seniors Services Society has over fifty years of experience in enhancing the lives of those 60+. Senior citizens have been identified as especially vulnerable to severe illness during COVID-19.

Video: Canucks for Kids Fund Donates $500K for COVID-19 ($25,000) - Positively impacting low literacy levels in vulnerable Lower Mainland communities by providing a co-coordinated, integrated-services approach to family literacy and lifelong learning. In addition to educational programming, the Education Centre offers hot lunch, transit passes, preschool and childcare - all free of charge - in order to provide barrier-free support to all student families. They depend on donations in order to benefit this large community of families and children during quarantine measures.

Video: Canucks for Kids Fund Donates $500K for COVID-19 ($25,000) - Mackie's Place is an afterschool youth hub serving vulnerable youth in Surrey, BC. They create a hub as a platform to build their employment skills, community engagement and build lasting relationships. With school and community organization closures, kids are relying on Mackie's Place now more than ever.

Video: Canucks for Kids Fund Donates $500K for COVID-19 ($25,000) - Foundry offers young people ages 12-24 health and wellness resources, services and supports - online and in centres in nine BC communities. In response to the pandemic, Foundry launched Foundry Virtual (www.foundrybc.ca/virtual) to ensure young people and their caregivers are provided the support they need, when they need it. Foundry Virtual provides drop-in counselling sessions by voice, video and chat, with more services to come in the weeks ahead. The Canucks for Kids Fund grant will support Foundry Virtual to provide more services.

Video: Canucks for Kids Fund Donates $500K for COVID-19 ($25,000) - YWCA Crabtree Corner is a welcoming resource centre in the Downtown Eastside where women and families can find food programs, child care, early literacy groups, housing, parenting and intergenerational support, FASD supports and other community building opportunities. As a result of the COVID-19 crisis, many families in the Downtown Eastside that access essential YWCA services like housing and food programs are in an increasingly precarious situation.

Video: Canucks for Kids Fund Donates $500K for COVID-19 ($25,000) - Kids Help Phone is Canada's only 24/7, national support service. They offer professional counselling, information and referrals and volunteer-led, text-based support to young people and adults in both English and French. Right now, they are receiving a major surge in service requests from youth experiencing anxiety from the COVID-19 crisis, as Kids Help Phone is the only national service of its kind. Their mission is to ensure youth are never alone as we all face an unprecedented global crisis with the COVID-19 pandemic.

About the Canucks for Kids Fund:

The Canucks for Kids Fund dedicates resources to assist charities which support children's health and wellness, foster the development of grassroots hockey, and facilitate and encourage education in British Columbia.

Thanks to the generosity of our fans, donors, players, employees and sponsor partners, the Canucks for Kids Fund (CFKF) has granted $64 million to charities in British Columbia over the last 34 years.

The Canucks for Kids Fund raises awareness and funds through several charitable initiatives including Canucks for Kids Fund 50/50, Canucks for Kids Fund Dice & Ice Gala, Canucks for Kids Fund Superskills powered by Rogers, Canucks for Kids Fund Telethon presented by TD and the Jake Milford Charity Invitational Golf Tournament. The Canucks for Kids Fund also raises funds through partnerships with Special Olympics BC's Sports Celebrities Festival and the Vancouver Sun's Raise a Reader Day.

Our core beneficiaries, Canucks Autism Network (CAN), Canuck Place Children's Hospice and BC Children's Hospital Foundation are providing vital resources and life-saving care to families all across this province.