Today was a very special day at the museum! We got a wonderful early Christmas gift – a (much needed) shiny, beautiful new van! This van will soon be accompanied by a hitch, vehicle wrap and 20 foot enclosed trailer.

The days of managing our outreach, on-water and public programming by using rentals and staff vehicles are over – thanks to some very special supporters.

We first endeavoured to raise funds for a van by submitting our project to the Aviva Community Funding Competition. Though we experienced a huge amount of support from the community and museum stakeholders during the campaign, and were very competitive in the online voting round, we did not earn enough votes to advance in the competition or receive the requested funding.

The momentum and support that was generated from the Aviva campaign did not fizzle out! Advocates, champions and heroes of the museum continued to persevere and raise funds through other means in order to secure this very important piece of equipment for us, and thanks to them, by early December 2016 we had raised enough money for the purchase of this van and trailer package!

The Canadian Canoe Museum would like to extend our most heartfelt and sincere thanks to all of the supporters and donors of this fundraising initiative including The Beaver Club Gala Committee, Les and Beverly Cassidy, Mercedes Benz Peterborough, Commercial Press & Design, and all of those who made donations at the Beaver Club Gala through the Paddles Up fundraising initiative.

 Pictured above from left to right – Brandon Panagopka and Michael Santos of Mercedes-Benz Peterborough, Joyce MacKenzie - Co-Chair of the Beaver Club Gala Committee, Les and Beverley Cassidy, Jim Stewart, Joanne Brown - Beaver Club Gala Committee Member, Carolyn Hyslop - CCM General Manager, Katie Stewart - Beaver Club Gala Committee Member and Tom Watson and Des Hazlewood of Commercial Press & Design.

Pictured above from left to right – Brandon Panagopka and Michael Santos of Mercedes-Benz Peterborough, Joyce MacKenzie – Co-Chair of the Beaver Club Gala Committee, Les and Beverley Cassidy, Jim Stewart, Joanne Brown – Beaver Club Gala Committee Member, Carolyn Hyslop – CCM General Manager, Katie Stewart – Beaver Club Gala Committee Member and Tom Watson and Des Hazlewood of Commercial Press & Design.

“This is a game-changer for our on-water programs! We can now transport our paddling camp participants and all of our canoes and gear with ease, and having this self-sufficient transportation means we can continue expanding our water-based programming”, says Stacey Arppe, the museum’s Volunteers and Public Programs Manager

This new equipment will make it possible for us to transport children to summer paddling camps, travel to schools and other locations off-site to deliver educational programs and workshops, transport our public paddling fleet to community events and provide safe transport of our artifacts to exhibits at partner museums! 

We are so fortunate to have such wonderful supporters, and we simply can not thank each and every one of them enough! Merry Christmas everyone!

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