Vancouver – Vancouver Island teens led the province in doing something charitable for their own communities, said Central 1 Credit Union.
North Island teens stood up and were counted, literally, pushing the Salvation Army Mt. Waddington Disaster Relief Fund to number three on the list of most-supported charities and earning $6,450 for beleaguered victims of the region’s September floods. Flood relief funds of $8,360 were also donated to the Canadian Red Cross BC Floods Response pushing it to number one on the list.
On Jan. 19, Central 1 announced the results of a province-wide campaign that challenged young adults to Be Remarkable by helping to distribute $100,000 to local charities.
The initiative, led by Central 1 on behalf of British Columbia’s 45 credit unions, used the popular social networking site Facebook as the mechanism to allocate and distribute the funds.
Sixteen regions in B.C. were each represented by a photo album on the Be Remarkable Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/beremarkable). Each time a Facebook user tagged themselves or a friend in photos of their community or town, B.C.’s credit unions donated $1 to a local charity.
Thirty-two charities were eligible to receive the funds; each one is focused on issues important to young adults such as sports, culture, education, health, and the environment.
“By harnessing a little regional pride online, young people were able to support local causes that are important to them,” said Martin Reed, Director, Marketing & Creative Services, Central 1 in a press release.
Even without counting the disaster relief funds mentioned above, Vancouver Island led the province in the number of tags.