River Kids, a nonprofit organization structured to help families when children are facing critical health issues, is starting to make an impact in the qathet region.
“We’re a fairly new organization but we’re gaining traction,” said Cait Holmes, founding director of River Kids. “We’re helping a surprising number of local families financially.”
River Kids is 100 per cent run by volunteers and helps families financially when their children are facing a health crisis, such as a life-threatening or critical illness or injury, or in the event of a child’s death, help can be provided for the funeral, according to Holmes.
Criteria for River Kids’ assistance is that the person facing severe health issues has to be under the age of 19, live in the qathet region and be facing a health crisis. The organization incorporated in June of 2021 and has helped five families to date, disbursing just over $7,000. Another $3,000 is committed to a family with a child with leukemia.
“That’s going to be a long road of recovery,” said Holmes.
Gaining awareness and recognition in the community is important for the success of the organization, said Holmes. She was on the board of directors of a very similar organization in Campbell River and took that organization, and You are Not Alone, from the Comox Valley, and amalgamated the two to create a hybrid for qathet.
Families who have received help include one whose child was in a bad accident and had multiple fractures, and another with a child with a severe lung infection upon birth. The child had to be airlifted out of the community. Help has also gone to the family of a premature baby, and another with a 14-month-old child undergoing heart surgery. A lot of a family’s expenses in these circumstances don’t get covered, said Holmes.
She said the boy with leukemia is going to be in BC Children’s Hospital for six months. The family is a two-income family and the mother is taking a leave of absence from work to be with her son. They have another child here, so the father is remaining, but they need to go back and forth to Vancouver to visit the boy in hospital. The only time they get BC Ferries travel assistance is if the child is in the car, said Holmes.
The father is also considering taking a leave of absence and if he does so, his extended health plan no longer covers the family, which means they will have expensive medication costs, said Holmes. They get one month’s free stay at Ronald McDonald House and then it’s out of pocket for five months.
“It can be financially crippling,” added Holmes. “It could be bankruptcy for something like this.”
Family resource
Holmes said River Kids’ goal is for families to know they have a resource here.
“Our goal is for the community and the people of Powell River and qathet region to know there is somebody in their corner to help them out so they don’t have to stress,” said Holmes.
To help raise funds, on April 22, there will be a beer and burger event at Carlson Community Club. That event is about 80 per cent sold, with 160 tickets having been printed. Tickets can be purchased at BMO from Sasha Randolph, or Afterglow Hair Lounge. The organization is also looking for donations for a silent auction.
Holmes said there is also hope to put on an event later in the year where people can get dressed up and do something nice. She also said if there are businesses or other organizations willing to do fundraisers on behalf of River Kids to raise funds and create awareness, they can contact her at the email address below.
If people want to contribute to the organization to directly help families, they can go to riverkids.ca and look for the donate tab. Holmes said the only thing with that is that DonorBox, the collecting organization, takes a cut. She said if people want to set up a monthly donation on their credit card, they can do it on the website.
For cash donations directly to River Kids, donors can e-Transfer to cait@riverkids.ca.
In terms of identifying families in need, River Kids is in the process of developing flyers for medical clinics and the hospital to assist families to get linked up with the organization. Holmes also said if she hears of something going on in the community, she’ll reach out to the family and indicate that a resource is available.
An application for assistance can be found on the River Kids website.
