Masks for Seniors

The Yorkton & District Community Foundation coordinated a community effort to provide masks to support vulnerable persons during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Working with community partners, Yorkton & District Community Foundation (YDCF) arranged for cloth masks for nearly 600 seniors, residents of Good Spirit Housing Authority properties, in Yorkton, Canora and Melville along with a supply of disposable masks for visitors to the properties.

“Visitors to shared senior housing were restricted during the COVID-19 emergency and we wanted to help these seniors to safely receive visitors and move within the community, once things open up,” says Ray Bailey.

The Yorkton & District Community Foundation, the Rotary Club, Baileys Funeral Home, Grain  Millers, Canadian Tire, Legacy Co-op have all pledged support for the project and the City of Yorkton is providing administrative support. 

Leading the project on behalf of the Yorkton & District Community Foundation are; Ray Bailey, Victor Surjik, Lisa Washington and Andrew Rae.

“We are incredibly grateful to seamstress Judith Stewart for volunteering her time to sew all of the cloth masks,” says Ray Bailey. “We also want to thank Victor (photo at left) and Evelyn Surjik and their family for putting together the mask kits.” Delivery of the mask kits began on July 9, 2020.

The Rotary Club was the first to come on board for this project pledging volunteers and funding. Bailey’s Funeral Home was the first business making a large financial  donation to the project. Canadian Tire donated 1,000 disposable masks.

Grain Millers (Canada) assisted in several ways, by providing a supply of disposable masks, and making financial donations to both the Yorkton & District Emergency Fund and to the community endowment fund. Legacy Co-op made a large donation to the Emergency Fund to support the masks project and other emerging needs.

“The YDCF board is extremely grateful to all of the partners on this project, “ says Andrew Rae. “It’s in difficult times that you really see our community pull together.”The Yorkton & District Community Foundation continues to welcome donations from interested individuals and businesses. 

 Visitors to shared senior housing properties were restricted on and off during the COVID-19 emergency. The Masks for Seniors Mask Project was an attempt to help these seniors to safely receive visitors and to move within the community when they could.

Each kit contains a reusable cloth mask, 10 disposable masks and information about care and proper use of masks.