500 Club pledges near $50,000 for Saskatchewan charities

As the Saskatchewan affordability cheques continue to get sent out, a number of people have already pledged theirs to a local cause.

When the cheques were first announced, Nicole Berg and others founded the 500 Club – a pledge campaign that encourages people to donate their $500 to a charity of their choice if they’re able to.

Berg joined Gormley guest host Taylor MacPherson on Friday for an update on how things have gone.

“We are heading into the tail end of our campaign. It’s a sprint to the finish line,” Berg said. “We’re just one $500 pledge away from crossing $50,000 raised in pledges for our locally owned profits. So we’re just shy of 100 donors.

“We’ve had a lot of people split donations. We’ve had a lot of people pledge less than the $500 cheque, which we encourage. Anyone can do what they can – we’ve had people pledge more as well, which is also fantastic. We are just welcoming everyone to do what they can and tap into that generous spirit that is kind of inherent in our province.”

Berg said the club members wanted to make it easy for people to donate in their own ways.

“The idea is we all want to help our communities. We all have different visions for what that looks like (and) different causes that are close to our hearts, so we didn’t want to prescribe anything,” Berg said. “(It’s) just kind of for whoever can do something, do what you can and do what you want. Support a good cause, support your own community in your way.”

Berg said a wide variety of charities have been supported since the campaign started, with food banks getting a lot of attention.

“What stood out to me is food banks. There have been so much support for Saskatoon Food Bank, Regina’s (and) Battleford’s,” Berg said. “I think food banks have been able to highlight the needs in our communities and people are responding, so I’m really heartened to see that.”

With more cheques being sent out, people can still pledge to donate to a cause of their choice.

“It’s not a hard sell by any means. People want to do good, they want to support their communities and they want to give how they can, so we just made that happen with as little restrictions as possible,” Berg said.