BSI Insurance has made a donation of $2,500 to Opa’s Park in Niverville. The leaders behind the park’s restoration, Beth Downey and Alexa Sawatzky, have plenty of plans for how to use the new funds.
As Downey began this year’s fundraising season, she reached out to local businesses and organizations and was thrilled to hear back from BSI first, courtesy of their “Because We Care” community investment initiative.
The BWC program began in 2008. However, David Robin, BSI’s marketing and brand coordinator, says that it didn’t really take off until 2012.
“The marketing team recognized the potential and effectiveness of the campaign and subsequently made the decision to increase its funding with an annual budget of $25,000, solidifying its status as a prominent and impactful initiative within the company,” says Robin.
The program operates by inviting customers and clients to visit their website and complete a form detailing the nature of their fundraising endeavours. Robin explains that these can be community-based projects or requests for charitable contributions or financial assistance for community betterment initiatives.
Once the application is submitted, it undergoes a review process involving a team of executives, regional branch leaders, and team leaders, as well as the marketing team.
“While the decision-making process can be challenging due to the numerous worthy applications, we strive to make the best choices,” says Robin. “We also encourage applicants to reapply if they haven’t received a response within six months, demonstrating our commitment to continually support and uplift our communities.”
Robin recalls seeing Downey’s name in his email inbox more than once.
“[Downey’s] persistence in applying for support is something we actively encourage. After thorough evaluation by our team, it was evident that this project was aligned with a noble cause capable of bringing about a positive transformation in the Niverville community.”
This $2,500 donation is designated specifically towards the park’s new natural timber obstacle course.
Throughout 2023, work on the park has been progressing well. A donation from Your Grocery People in Niverville was used for a part of the project that Downey says was inglorious but important. Failing trees were removed from the space in order to make room for the planting of native fruiting and flowering shrubs.
Clearing these trees also helped make room for another upcoming project: full-scale industrial solar safety lighting and a CCTV security camera.
Downey feels that the most important project of 2023, though, has been the regrading work.
“Skyview Landscaping did some very finicky, high-level regrading work for us in the park in order to amend a long-standing drainage problem,” says Downey. “They did a beautiful job, so now the park will no longer be a swamp every single spring until, like, June, at which point it breeds mosquitoes. Every fall that we weren’t able to get that done was a spring that we lost to the flooding.”
As winter approaches, work in the park will mostly end for the season, but Downey is exceptionally pleased by the results her team has made so far.
“The survival and thriving rates in the new gardens are outrageously high,” she says. “Our horticulturist, Alexa Sawatzky, has been very impressed.”
Downey is also so grateful to her team of dedicated volunteers who have managed to keep on top of the weeding and maintenance of the gardens.
“The reason I emphasize that is because natural prairie ecosystems do not look like modern planned and cultivated gardens,” Downey explains. “They are very wild, very scattered, very random, and a lot of the plantings that are there deliberately look like weeds because actually they are. The word ‘weed’ just means a plant that’s going where somebody doesn’t want it, but it has no botanical meaning. So I know that there are a number of folks around town who sometimes wander by the park and go, ‘Is it supposed to look like that?’ Yes, it is!”
This past year, a connection was also formed between the park and Niverville Elementary School. The school has established a committee for the advancement of outdoor learning, in partnership with the park, and they have hosted several visits from first and second grade classes.
In 2024, Downey and Sawatzky plan to have a weather station installed in the park to add to their nature playground. They intend the space to function as an outdoor classroom.
Another fundraising effort the pair will launch this year is publishing a “Christmas list” for the park. Downey explains that those who wish to support Opa’s Park financially can either donate to the general fund or sponsor a particular item.
Details on this initiative will be coming soon.
Downey and Sawatzky are constantly amazed by the support they get for their passion project. Downey adds that their team of volunteers has been indispensable.
“This project has received a level of enthusiasm and material support from Niverville as a community that I never foresaw in a million years,” she says. “But it’s not finished yet. We need that support to be sustained and we really, really look forward to delivering on what we raise people’s hopes about.”
As for BSI’s ongoing community investment, Robin wants to encourages others to apply for BWC funds.
“The Because We Care program is set to grow and evolve in exciting ways,” Robin says. “We anticipate a boost in the annual budget for our program and an expanded reach that will touch even more lives and communities.”
