The following is the Executive Summary of the Western Region North of 60 Project 2023 Annual Report. To read the full report, please click the picture at the bottom of this article. Contributed by Peter Ouellette.

Executive Summary

Thank you for your support. We have had a great year despite the disastrous fires that hit the Community of Hay River and caused a significant amount of rerouting of the McKenzie River barges. All the sea cans made it to their final destinations shown on the map.

For more than 10 years the Society members in Edmonton and Calgary have been providing food, household items, beds and bedding, sewing machines and fabric as well as other items requested from members of the nine communities that we serve.

Sea containers are loaded by our Vincentian members in Church parking lots, shipped by truck to Hay River and barged by Marine Transportation Services down the Mackenzie River to reach their Community. For three of the Communities, the sea cans are repositioned from a River barge at Tuktoyaktuk to an ocean barge and shipped along the Beaufort Sea to their destinations.

This project is managed by a team of SSVP volunteers. There are no paid employees. Team members are assigned to a community. They work with members of their home Parish/Conference to learn about the needs of those living in this Community. Their role is to develop knowledge and most importantly – long term rapport, which allows for an accurate listing of the community needs as well as confidence in fair distribution of the product shipped. The team members try to make Community visits every couple of years. Team members also meet their contacts or other Community Elders when they are in Edmonton on personal or medical visits.

Our program will continue in 2024 thanks to the support of so many.

After several years of dedicated volunteer work from Vincentians in Sherwood Park AB, we were able to complete the restoration of Father’s House in Paulatuk. We have witnessed the value of this Community support and have a few similar projects under review.

We again are grateful to our corporate benefactors who made this project financially viable. The transportation logistics, food supply and household product donations continue to be strong as well as the dollar donations that many of you have made. Please continue to be generous.

Thank you for helping us to help others, and blessings to all of you.