Announcing SDCF-TV

There’s a new TV channel in town – SDCF-TV –  launched this week by the Selkirk & District Community Foundation on YouTube.

 It premiers with 15 minutes of original footage and interviews with people living in Selkirk, the RM of St. Clements and the RM of St. Andrews. The videos on the channel tell the history of the foundation, introduces local donors and interviews people who have benefitted from money from the foundation.

 Some of the guest stars on SDCF-TV include Ecole Selkirk Junior High principal Wayne Davies and his students; Reeve Don Forfar and the St. Andrews Community Club volunteers; founding donors Roberta Chic, Jim and Betty Anne Gaynor; and grant recipients from Nova House, Selkirk Community Living and Selkirk Hospital Palliative Care, to name a few.

 The project was launched to celebrate the foundation’s 15^th birthday and the videos were first aired at the first Friends of the Foundation dinner in November, says the foundation’s board member and producer of the videos Shirley Muir.

 “Our hope is that the channel will allow us to share these stories far and wide and inspire others to make donations, apply for grants and maybe even create their own videos on philanthropy. Tell us why you think donating is important, put it on video and send it in. The best stories we’ll post on SDCF-TV,” says Muir.

 Kim Bater, Regional Coordinator of the Community Foundations of Canada that represents thousand of foundations across Canada, says the launch of SDCF-TV puts this community on the leading edge of fundraising efforts in Canada.

“We know that the best way to raise funds is to engage a community with human interest stories that bind the community. And the best way to do that is to embrace the technology of the next generation with video and the Internet,” Bater says. “The SDCF-TV stories give us all a real flavor of your community and the people who make it a great place to live. Foundations across the country will be looking at this as model of how to celebrate and engage a community,” he said from his office in Banff, Alberta.

 You can see the videos at: http://www.youtube.com/user/SDCFtv