The Temagami Community Foundation serves the Temagami region, including permanent residents, seasonal cottagers, and the First Nation. We've given more than $460,000 in grants to various community groups and projects in the Temagami area since our inception in 2001. Our signature project is the free summer Art Camp where about 50 children from Bear Island, seasonal cottagers, and the town of Temag
ami come together to have fun and enjoy a cross-cultural experience. They start the week as strangers separated by labels, quickly forming friendships by overcoming community barriers. With additional funding we will help preserve Temagami's Old Growth Trails, a unique wilderness area established as Conservation Reserves in 2002, where some trees are aged at 400 years old. Unfortunately, there has been little organized planning to maintain and care for the trails. We are working with a partnership group to develop a cohesive 10-year plan to make this area more accessible to the community. Docks will provide easier access. The trails require maintenance, care and planning—not to mention clear and concise maps. Interpretive tours will teach hikers more about the area. How are we different from other organizations? A community foundation is a grassroots charity working with volunteers, but it is different from other organizations in a couple of ways. We match donor interests to community needs. We take a broad view of what a community is. Lastly, we take a long-term view, identifying opportunities and sustainable solutions, by raising funds for our endowment. Every year we grant a percentage of our endowment to worthwhile projects. If you think of the United Way, they are like a chequing account and we are more like a savings account. The Temagami Community Foundation is also unique from other community foundations in Canada. We serve a First Nations population in Bear Island, along with local Temagami and seasonal residents. And since the latter are both American and Canadian citizens, we serve an international group and are able to issue tax receipts for both countries.
