Charity hearts of Prince George were beating strongly through last winter in order to keep a Canadian icon’s history at Exploration Place.
When the museum was having a hard time keeping Terry Fox’s popular exhibit in its facility for as long as they could, the Prince George Recycle and Return-It Centre laced up its shoes and came to its financial aid.
The Return-It Centre boosted $3,500 to Exploration Place for the once-in-a-lifetime presentation, via its donation bin campaign.
This brings the business’ funding total to over $55,000 to local charities in the last four years.
“It was such a challenge because we had another exhibit coming at the time and we had to find a place to store it,” said CEO Tracy Calogheros to PrinceGeorgeMatters. “There were a variety of other organizations that stepped up too. Prince George Recycling actually contributed cash to be allow us to pay the bills that were going to come out of that extension.”
Terry Fox - Running to the Heart of Canada was on display in B.C.’s northern capital from Oct. 15, 2018 to Feb. 18, 2019, one month longer than the initial schedule.
.@ExplorationPG, a charity organization, relies on the community to help fund exhibits; CEO Tracy Calogheros says they need at least $2,400 a day to ‘keep the doors open’ | #CityOfPG @PGMatters pic.twitter.com/bxudoEsh31
— Kyle Balzer (@KyleBalzer) May 15, 2019
Calogheros says it was one of the most popular exhibits they have ever held, bringing in over 14,000 visits before the extra month was added.
“We have to earn $2,400 a day just to keep our doors open,” she explained while also adding that Exploration Place has never extended a temporary exhibit in its history.
“Retaining it for an extra month caused all sorts of logistic problems. When you’re bringing exhibits in from all over the country, or in some cases from other countries, the actual in-and-out dates are really important; truckers, movers, and all those guys have to come in. So, we don’t generally do something like this, and we put out a call on social media to help us keep it. The community really wanted to stay and these guys stepped right up.”
She was presented with the over-sized cheque (and formal cheque) from Austin Kim of the Prince George Recycle and Return-It Centre this morning (May 15).
“We want to say ‘thanks’ to the generous people that are living in Prince George,” said Kim. “It’s been really great; none of this would’ve been possible without them.”
The Terry Fox exhibit featured articles of clothing from his Marathon of Hope run, his prosthetic leg, medals and honours he received, and a visit on Day One from his brother Darrell Fox.
.@ExplorationPG receives $3,500 donation from Prince George Recycling & Return Centre, helping them offset the cost of hosting the @TerryFoxCanada Exhibit last winter | #CityOfPG @PGMatters pic.twitter.com/5r5RV8cZmU
— Kyle Balzer (@KyleBalzer) May 15, 2019
