04/01/2026
🌺 COLDWELL COMMUNITY FOUNDATION HIGHLIGHTS OF 2025
After 20 years of Incorporation, the Coldwell Community Foundation has found a home, renting office space in the Pauline Johnson Library on Main Street in Lundar as of June 1, 2025. It is a wonderful location, easily visible and accessible to the public.
This will enable the foundation to better engage with their donors, meet with prospective donors, present and potential fund holders and provide an opportunity for the public to stop by for coffee and learn more about their foundation.
This has been a positive step forward for the Foundation. Former Lundarite, Donald K. Johnson donated money to build the Pauline Johnson Library and in 2010, he launched the Foundation’s endowment fund with a gift of $25,000 and now the two charities are together under the same roof! It truly is a beautiful story!
Two new funds have been established with the foundation in 2025:
The Johann & Helga Sigurdson Scholarship Fund was created by the family in honour of their mother Helga’s 105th birthday in July and in recognition of their parent’s many contributions to the Lundar community over the years. Education was important and a high priority in the Sigurdson household thus influencing the creation of the scholarship fund. Beginning in June, an annual scholarship will be awarded at the Lundar high school graduation to a student pursuing post-secondary education.
The Sveinbjorn & Mary Olafson Family Fund was created by family members in the fall of 2025 and is open to receiving donations. The goal for this fund is to begin awarding an annual scholarship at the Lundar high school graduation beginning in 2027. Details of the fund and scholarship are being developed and will be forthcoming.
A gift of $50,000 was received in September from Mr. Richard Hughes, former owner of Portage CFRY radio station. In his letter, he said that the gift “was in recognition and support CFRY received from the area served by your foundation.” The support this area has given CFRY over the years has come back to our community in such an impactful way and will forever help support annual granting!
In October, the Lundar Co-op Senior Citizen Home approached the Foundation for possible support for an emergency that surfaced and needed immediate attention prior to winter. Their door locking system needed an upgrade – it was outdated, unreliable and posed a huge risk to the safety and lives of the Home’s residents, and even more so with winter fast approaching.
Due to generous admin. support received throughout the year, there was a surplus in the Foundation budget of $5,000 that was able to be granted for their project. Shortly thereafter, it was discovered that a $10,000 Foundation grant that had been awarded to another community group in March could not be claimed because their project was being delayed until 2026.
Rather than having the funds remain idle in the account until the next granting cycle in February, the $10,000 was reallocated to further support this project, almost in its entirety and installation of the new computerized door monitoring system was completed in time for winter. The Lundar Co-op Senior Citizen Home has been under extensive renovations and upgrades over this past while and is looking fantastic. The board is to be commended for their hard work and dedication to the upkeep and maintenance of this beautiful facility in our community.
The Coldwell Community Foundation’s 2025 Annual Report will be available for distribution at the 2026 granting event planned for April 11th at 2:00pm at the Lutheran Church Hall. All are welcome to attend and see what new projects are being planned in our community for this year.
