Home Base YK was treated to a special Christmas-style dinner and funding donation from two NWT organizations on Dec. 19: Yellowknife-based Copperhouse Eatery + Lounge and Diavik diamond mine.
“We’ve been reaching out to the community and businesses and whatnot, just looking for support,” said Tammy Roberts, executive director of Home Base YK. “The youth centre is a very underfunded resource that we’re operating.”
The youth centre has been struggling to cover rent and staff wages.
“We’ve had a really hard time getting funding to support us (in) running the facility, paying the rent, paying our staff, all of that,” said Roberts. “So that’s the program that’s getting the most attention right now. We were really fortunate to have the Copperhouse reach out to us, asked if there was anything we needed. I said, ‘We would love to host a dinner with all the youth in our programs.’”
The Copperhouse subsequently delivered a requested 40 meals, which arrived hot and ready to eat. The dinners contained turkey, potatoes, vegetables and gravy.
Diavik diamond mine provided money to Home Base YK to support the dinner and to allow youths to buy gifts during the holiday season.
The total amount provided has not been finalized yet.
“They are giving us a nice donation so that we can have a really quality Christmas,” said Roberts.
She expressed confidence that the youths involved in Home Base YK will have a more enjoyable holiday season due to the extent of giving among Yellowknifers.
“We have many other groups: groups of employees, businesses, people, single people on their own, privately just giving us donations for Christmas,” she said. “So the kids are going to have an amazing Christmas this year.”