The Langley Foundation

Most Langley charities have a clear job: feed people, house people, fix hearts. The Langley Foundation’s job is a bit more open-ended. It exists to catch the projects that fall between what senior governments fund and what a city or township can afford on its own, and to point donors at them.

The Foundation was announced just before Christmas 2022. Its own site describes three areas of focus: infrastructure (paths, trails and connections between neighbourhoods), arts, heritage and culture, and the environment, meaning parks, trees and gardens. It serves both the Township and the City, and its work so far reads like a map of both.

Projects you can go and see

Ponder Park. The park sits at 76th Avenue and 250 Street. The Foundation is leading a refresh that its project page lists as new signage, longer and better trails, improved parking and a new entrance, with the Rotary clubs helping out. A volunteer Day of Service is part of the plan. The photo on this page, a picnic area among the trees, comes from that project page.

Ponder Park North. A local donor gave the Foundation 14.3 acres of natural reserve land next to the park, valued by the Foundation at $2,430,000. The plan, worked out with the Township, is to fold the land into Ponder Park and extend its trails.

Sperling Trail. A multi-use path on 72nd Avenue, across from Thunderbird Show Park, open to walkers, runners and horses. The next phase is meant to run north and join up with Ponder Park.

Memory Grove. By the Salmon River in Fort Langley, a planting of 150 trees marking the Township’s 150th anniversary, inspired by the trees Dr. Benjamin Marr planted along Glover Road nearly a century ago. The Foundation lists this one as completed.

Downtown Fraser Highway. While the City of Langley redoes the downtown core, the Foundation is raising money for street trees, benches and seating. It lists $3,000 to sponsor a tree, a bench or a seating carousel. The site also mentions columnar and canopy trees planted with donors, sponsors and the Township.

Memorial benches. Together with the City and the Township, the Foundation sells commemorative benches for parks and trails.

The Foundation also lists a Vimy Ridge tribute, the Arboreum Vimy Ridge, with an oak grown from a Vimy acorn and a “Boots in the Trenches” installation, at the Derek Doubleday Arboretum, and the long-running Arbour Ribbon idea, a treed trail corridor along the urban-rural edge first imagined in 2004.

Grants

The Foundation was chosen to administer the Community Prosperity Fund for Langley non-profits. The fund is a $25-million BC Government investment in poverty reduction and social inclusion. Thirty-three local non-profits applied; the Foundation had $695,000 to give. The recipients it names are Encompass Support Services, Ishtar Family Services, Langley Meals on Wheels, Langley Food Bank, Langley Senior Resources, Langley Vineyard, Lower Fraser Valley Aboriginal Society, Pathfinders Youth Society, Raphael House, the Rotary Clubs Foundation and the Salvation Army Gateway of Hope. Some of those have pages here: Langley Food Bank, Gateway of Hope, Langley Senior Resources Society and the Rotary clubs.

The Foundation also says it helped buy vans for Raphael House and for Meals on Wheels.

How to give

Gifts to the Foundation are made through the donate page. There’s an “I Love Langley” campaign for general giving toward trails, parks, trees, arts and infrastructure, an endowment option where a named fund is invested and pays out grants each year, and planned giving through a will. The site says it keeps administration costs to a minimum, but doesn’t give a percentage.

Charity Shopping Night

The Foundation is one of six charities sharing the ticket sales from the 11th annual Charity Shopping Night at Willowbrook Shopping Centre, Tuesday, Nov. 17, 7 to 10 p.m., according to the Langley Advance Times. The same night also supports the Langley School District Foundation. Don’t confuse the two: they’re separate charities with separate boards.

More local causes are in charities and galas.

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