For years, local artist Rick Mintz has put his talents to good use.
In 2019, Mintz started creating calendars by putting a collection of his paintings together to raise money for the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation. Themes have always been based in nature and this year is no different with the 2025 calendar featuring scenes from each Canadian province and the Territories.
Most of his art is done with reference to photographs he and his friends have taken over the years.
This year there is one special piece of artwork that is not his and it is the first time he has included someone else’s work in one of the calendars.
“The Atlantic puffin, a symbol of Newfoundland, was painted by my late sister-in-law Nicki Johnson,” Mintz said. “I thought I would put this in the calendar to honour her.”
Mintz has fundraised for the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation for years and it started with a golf tournament organized by the Prince George Community for Kids organization in which he was a member.
“When COVID hit it stopped the golf tournament and after the pandemic we didn’t get the volunteers back,” Mintz said.
He knew he had to switch gears so he started thinking of unique ways to fundraise on his own.
“I was already making calendars for my family and friends using my pictures so I thought that might be a good idea and it’s kind of fun,” Mintz said.
“The first year I sold 175 and I was shocked I could sell that many calendars.”
Sales dipped to 158 in 2021 because of the restrictions put in place to protect people from the coronavirus prevented him from going out into the community to sell them.
“But then I got invited to Studio Fair for free in 2022 because I am fundraising for the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation,” Mintz said. “I sold 278 that year. Then 310 in 2023 and then last year 403.”
Mintz puts his time into attending other craft fairs as well and last year attended six to help boost sales for the good cause. There are more appearances on his schedule for this season of craft fairs.
He’s out and about every weekend for the next several weeks because he knows the BC Children’s Hospital is such an important service provided to all the children in the province at a most vulnerable time in their lives.
“There were more than 130,000 children at BC Children’s Hospital last year,” Mintz said. “And more than 4,000 children came from Northern Health.”
The calendar is always for sale at Studio 2880 and at Omineca Arts Centre and the Central Interior Railway and Forestry Museum.
Along with his calendars for sale for $20 each, Mintz also puts the original paintings up for sale to add to the total donated. So far Mintz has donated more than $16,000 to BC Children’s Hospital.
For more information and to view Mintz's artwork visit www.ramart.ca or reach out to him at [email protected].
