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LETTER: How to make $500 last a lifetime

Alfred Rahn suggests donating the recovery benefit to the Health Centre Foundation

Dear  Editor: 

Just in time for the giving season the BC Government is showering most adult residents of this province with $500 each. Undoubtedly, this is meant to stimulate the economy and help it recover from the effects of COVID-19. Now, I suspect there are people to whom $500 will not make an appreciable difference to their lifestyle or general well-being. Frankly, myself I do not need this money.

But what I do need, like everybody else on Bowen, is a Health Centre, such as proposed by the Bowen Island Health Centre Foundation. The board of the foundation has been running a campaign to raise $6 million for the construction of the facility and they are ever so close. So I have decided to apply for this government benefit and the moment it arrives will donate it to BIHCF. 

I look at this donation, however small in the great scheme of things, as a long-term investment in my future health. It will pay dividends forever. No longer will I need to take car and ferry to medical appointments that can be dealt with locally. Saves ferry fares, the stress of driving on busy mainland and city streets and the time to get there and back home. The donation is tax deductible, so there will be an immediate benefit come tax time next spring. Seems like a worthwhile investment to me.

Alfred Rahn