“I’d say it’s been my biggest problem all my life…money. It takes a lot of money to make these dreams come true” Walt Disney
If you’ve never been to a Manitoba Nature Action Collaborative for Children (MNACC) gathering then you won’t know that there’s a special kind of magic that happens each and every time that group meets. You also won’t know that it was during one of those inspirational meetings that Ruth Armstrong stood up and said something along the lines of “I think that there are so many amazing people doing amazing things here in Manitoba to get kids outside that we should have an event where all these people get together and share their ideas. I think that we should call this meeting the Nature Summit because it will be a meeting of the minds.” (this quote is a complete fabrication because I don’t have any actual documentation of that moment. But that’s how I remember it.) What I do know for sure is that my life hasn’t been the same since that moment.
After that we started meeting and discussing what sort of an event we would like to see, who it would be for and what steps we would have to make in order to get there. After initial consultation with the community we formed a small working group and started working on Nature Summit 2010. I’m still amazed that we managed to pull it off as we really had no idea what we were doing-but we did and it rocked!
For the first Summit we had a donation from Healthy Child Manitoba– without which the 2010 Summit would not have happened. We received a WRAPP grant for water bottles and notebooks for participants. We had a small donations from individuals and MLA’s (see the Acknowledgements and Thanks page for more information) and other than that the money came from registration fees. Registration was slightly less than we had planned for and the members of the committee and most of the presenters paid registration fees in order to attend. Even at that we had a defecit- luckily the day was saved by the lovely folks at Investors Group Winnipeg East without whom we’d still be paying off the last Summit instead of planning the next one.
The point I’m trying to get accross is this- despite the fact that we’ve accomplished all of our goals and then some Manitoba Nature Summit Inc. is a 100% volunteer run organization- we all have day jobs. We don’t have charitable status (yet) and we compete for grants against organizations with fully paid fundraising departments. Which means that our best bet for funding Nature Summit 2012 is you- our loyal friends. We’re a very resourceful bunch and despite the challenges we have an amazing event brewing for this September but that is only if we can raise a bit of money to pay deposits for our venue, keynotes, and catering. So, you are wondering-
“How can I help?”
…. well for starters you can attend our Dinner and a Movie Fundraiser on Thursday, March 12th. As detailed on the Support the Summit page we are also looking for sponsors for our keynote speakers, to cover costs of workshops, and bursaries. Or if you have an idea for how you’d like to help you should shoot us a line at mnaccnaturesummit@gmail.com and I’m sure we can work something out. The beauty of having a small budget is that it’s easy to make a big splash. In other words for a donation of anywhere between $10-$1000 dollars you could be the reason that children in Manitoba and beyond have a childhood full of wonder and quality outdoor play!
We know that we have many friends, supporters and stakeholders who have the same vision that we do so now all we need to do is work together to turn our dreams into reality.
If you would like to contribute to the 2012 Manitoba Nature Summit Inc. you can contact us at mnaccnaturesummit@gmail.com to make arrangements to pay in person. You can also use our email address to pay via paypal for further instructions go here.
You can also buy our shirts, water bottles or notebooks.
Shirts are $20. They are much cuter in real life. Also available in Navy blue. You should also give us feed back for if you’d like other colours or different neck-line etc.
