(L-R) Dawn Morissette, WNGH President and CEO, Daniel Richard, ex-CANO treasurer, Fred Martel, WNGH Foundation Board Chair, and Manpreet Kaur, Foundation Coordinator gathered for the presentation of a $2,500 donation from CANO to the hospital foundation’s mammography machine campaign. 
(L-R) Dan Richard, ex-CANO Treasurer, hands a $1,500 donation to Sylvie Bélanger, Executive Director of Community Living West Nipissing. CANO shut its doors back in June, and donations were made to empty its coffers.
Despite its closure in June, the Conseil des arts de Nipissing Ouest (CANO) had one final set of donations to make on Tuesday, October 28. Ex-CANO Treasurer Dan Richard spent that morning presenting a pair of cheques to Community Living West Nipissing, for $1,500, and to the West Nipissing General Hospital Foundation’s Mammography campaign, for another $2,500. Those funds were taken from what remained in the CANO coffers after the group wound down this past summer.
“Community Living has always supported us by coming to our shows, there was regularly some representation from Community Living,” Richard says, explaining why they chose this organisation as a recipient.
Sylvie Bélanger, Executive Director of Community Living, says receiving the funds is somewhat bittersweet. While donations are always welcome, CANO meant a lot to the organisation and its clients, who really enjoyed going out to the local concerts, she explains. “They’ve always been very generous. They’ve always donated season tickets to our gala, so we could auction them off. People we support went to everything, they loved all the concerts, and it was easy since it was here, so I know they miss going,” she describes.
The second donation, Richard explains, was a way to give more broadly to West Nipissing.
“For the hospital, I was seated on the board of the hospital, so I knew they had a fundraising campaign for the mammography machine, and we decided to do our part there. That donation underlines the support from the community, and this was us giving back to them,” he states.
CANO wound down after taking a hard hit from the pandemic, having to cancel several shows and going through several attempts to rebound only to have successive lockdowns hinder their comeback efforts.
