The Keg Steakhouse and Bar restaurant chain is serving up $1 million in grants, and four local projects are competing for a prime cut of the cash.
The steakhouse chain will give out 40 community grants worth $25,000 each in the Thanks a Million contest, launched to celebrate 40 years of operation.
A total of 170 projects in communities across Canada and in four U.S. states are competing for the grants.
The public will select the winners by voting online at www.thekegthanksamillion.com. Each person can vote once per day up to June 14.
In the running locally is the Downtown Partnership's Spirit Gate public art project, United Way's youth success in employment initiative, Carrier Sekani Family Services community kitchen and the YMCA's Neighbourhood Scholars neighbourhood literacy program.
"The Downtown Partnership has submitted an application for enhancing the public art at the Veteran's Plaza Spirit Square," Initiatives Prince George vice president Kathie Scouten said. "What we're trying to do is encourage people to vote. We want to win this contest."
The Spirit Gate project would see Lheidli T'enneh artists Robert Frederick and Jennifer Pighin create a traditional dugout canoe and tile mosaic.
The City of Prince George, through its downtown initiatives fund, has set aside $30,000 for the creation of the canoe. The canoe will be carved out of wood using traditional methods, then cast in concrete and displayed at the Spirit Square.
The $25,000 grant will be used to fund the mosaic, which will decorate the concrete ledge around the canoe display site.
United Way of Northern B.C. project would create a career mentorship and work experience program for youth transitioning from high school to the workforce or post-secondary education.
The grant would pay to hire a coordinator to develop the program and build partnerships with employers willing to give youth short-term job experience.
Carrier Sekani Family Services is seeking the grant to build a community kitchen to complement its Soup Bus program.
The Soup Bus currently provides 200 prepared meals and 300 unprepared meals per week to low-income people at the Active Support Against Poverty shelter and Carney Hill Neighbourhood Centre.
Currently the meals delivered by the soup bus are prepared by a caterer. The community kitchen would allow volunteers to prepare meals for the Soup Bus, lowering costs. In addition, the kitchen would serve as a teaching kitchen to provide instruction in low-cost, healthy cooking.
The Neighbourhood Scholars program would be a 10-month program for children aged three to four years old, living in high-risk communities. The free program would offer children an interactive, educational reading program based on the YMCA Raising Kids of Who Read curriculum.
Children would attend two afternoons a week and picked up and dropped off my YMCA school buses. The $25,000 grant would provide transportation, staffing, supplies, snacks and field trips.
More information about all four projects is available online at www.thekegthanksamillion.com.
