In February, we launched our Emergency Response Fund. We didn’t know what to expect, we knew we needed to do something to support what we anticipated was going to be great need around COVID-19 response efforts. We wanted to help, we knew we had a role to play in the response, and we jumped in.
Little did we realize what lay ahead for us, the BC Centre for Disease Control, our public health leadership, and for all British Columbians.
Contemplating our early conversations around how we could best help, we are not only proud of what we’ve helped accomplish, we’re also so grateful to those who jumped in with us and supported the Foundation in our efforts to support the BCCDC and the COVID-19 response. This quickly became a truly shared experience.
Our Executive Director, Kristy Kerr, was a guest on Doug Nelson’s The Discovery Pod in March, just as we were finding ourselves entering new territory, within our organization and the world.
Doug asked Kristy “What’s motivating those donors to make gifts to this Emergency Response Fund?”
“… a gift to us in our Emergency Response Fund is a gift to support the people of British Columbia. It’s that genuine sense of, ‘I want to give back to help others’… It’s giving [people] that sense of control that they are doing something to make a difference to slow the spread of COVID-19 and ultimately stop this pandemic.”
Reflecting back on those words, and to their conversation, it couldn’t have been more prescient–over 1,000 individuals have donated so far, providing more than $400,000 to support one of the key BC-wide pandemic response projects that will help our public health experts understand, prevent, and prepare for future waves of COVID-19.
We understood early on that the world was changing; and we knew that people wanted to help, to have some control over a very uncontrollable situation. So to all our donors, we are grateful for your support, we appreciate all the kind messages, and you are a major part of the success we have seen in BC.
To those who have championed evidence-based information, we see you, we feel a connection to you, and we thank you. To the staff team and Board of Directors at the Foundation, to all the amazing people we have the privilege to work with at the BCCDC, and to Dr Bonnie Henry and BC’s political leadership, we express our gratitude.
To everyone in BC who is playing their part, we’re immensely grateful to all of you. The collectivity of our individual actions has made a visible, population-level difference. We’re watching British Columbians take actions to protect broader society; we’re watching Activate Health in action.
To all those who’ve played a role, we appreciate you. This is your success.
Thanks to our collective leadership, good decision-making at the right times, dedicated experts and the public, and a little dose of luck, we’re in a place we can be proud of and grateful for. But BC: we’re not done yet. While we’ve seen incredible success in BC, we need to remain cautious, vigilant, prepared, and aware. And it’s imperative we continue to invest in research that will keep us safe in the future. We at the Foundation are committed to that, and we’re all-in. We hope you remain all-in with us.
Check out our COVID-19 resource page for resources, infographics, and information on how you can help.
