Just as the Winkler/Morden Chapter of Habitat for Humanity was poised to begin a number of fundraising initiatives for its second build, a home in Morden, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, halting all plans.

Chapter Secretary Christina Falk says most of their fundraisers deal with big crowds, and therefore needed to be cancelled. "As we all know that can't happen right now, so we were left with no fundraisers."

Falk says they also lost funding from Manitoba Housing for both the Winkler and Morden house, which was another huge loss.

With summer festivals all cancelled, prospects for their playhouse raffle ticket sales have gone way down, as that's where they typically sell the majority of their tickets.

Having already received some applications for the Morden house prior to the pandemic, Falk says many of the people they cater to, and who had applied with Habitat for the Morden house, have now lost their jobs and would not qualify going forward because they don't have the income to make a payment on a house.

"This was a huge deal that we hadn't expected, and we believe that there are a lot more people in this position that have lost their income. So what we've decided to do is postpone going through applications and wait until spring of 2021 and we start getting applications in again." Falk says hopefully by then some families will have found jobs and they can evaluate income going forward.

Meantime, she notes the committee took a few months off to see what would happen with the COVID situation. They have recently come back together to evaluate the next year and what it might look like.

With so many non-profits in the communities they serve, Falk says many of them have huge immediate needs and are helping people in a variety of ways right now. "We recognize that it's important for those organizations to be able to raise funds right now to help people."

The Winkler/Morden Chapter of Habitat for Humanity has decided to take a breather from major fundraising in 2020. "We'll do a little bit of fundraising here and there, but not a whole lot."

"We do still need to fundraise," says Falk. "We do anticipate that after this year the need is going to be greater. I think we're going to have many more families in the lower-income category after this crisis."

The Winkler/Morden Chapter will still selling raffle tickets for the playhouse, however Falk says the draw has been postponed until September of 2021. To purchase tickets you can email wmhabitatfundraising@gmail.com

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