Nine arts and cultural groups are set to split more than $30,000 from the city of Port Coquitlam this summer.
Thursday, the city’s healthy community committee is expected to recommend grants from the Community Cultural Development Investment Program be awarded to:
• Hyde Creek Watershed Society ($2,500 for an educational activity book to teach kids about salmon life cycles);
• Haney Farmers Market Society ($1,500 for multicultural events at the PoCo Farmers’ Market, with SUCCESS and the Tri-Cities Local Immigration Partnership Program);
• Port Coquitlam Events Society ($7,500 for the 14th annual Downtown PoCo Car Show);
• Art Focus Artists’ Association ($1,500 for art demo nights);
• Theatrix Youtheatre Society ($5,000 for succession planning and training);
• Friends of Leigh Square Society ($5,000 for organizational planning);
• PoCo Heritage Trees ($2,410 for tree awareness);
• Tri-City School of Music ($2,500 for a new youth choir);
• and Aurelia Bizouard Art ($2,500 for a Live Light Painting mural).
The grant distribution, if green-lighted by council, will mean $16,590 will be left for the program intake this fall.
Several organizations didn’t qualify for the spring round due to incomplete applications, according to a committee report, or they were not eligible for funding.
Among them, the Friends of Leigh Square Society (a $20,000 request for operations); Tri-Cities Community TV Society ($15,000); and Simply Ballet ($10,000 to produce Cinderella at the Terry Fox Theatre).
However, city staff made an exception with the PoCo Events Society’s incomplete bid as the group is in transition to become an independent society and its mid-August car show draws 50,000 visitors to the downtown, the report noted.
The society is chaired by PoCo Coun. Dean Washington.
