Cookies, connection & community with Canuck Place Children's Hospice

Walking through the doors of Canuck Place Children’s Hospice one can immediately feel an overwhelming sensation of love. A home away from home, Canuck Place provides pediatric palliative care for children and support for their families. It is this love and compassion for the courageous young patients and their frightened families that has resonated for so many at First West Foundation and Envision Financial, a division of First West Credit Union.  

First West Foundation has a long-standing, treasured relationship with Canuck Place. From the inaugural $1,000 Envision Financial Community Endowment grant in 1998 to the most recent $15,025 grant last year, the wave of gratitude, service and connection continues today. Since that time, a fulsome relationship has blossomed between Envision Financial, First West Foundation and Canuck Place. 

In 2010, Envision Financial pledged $150,000 to Canuck Place and its extension project in Abbotsford to create the Family Support Library and the Nursing Team Lounge. Our employee volunteers were excited to shop for the first books to fill the library shelves and with additional support from the Foundation, furnishings filled the library and nurse’s lounge.  

Our relationship with Canuck Place has grown over the years. From humble beginnings to nearly $200,000 in grants and program sponsorships, we are all in. Not just as an organization, but as a community of employees committed to volunteering. Board service, community participation and branch-led engagement, it’s how we wrap our arms around an organization. At Canuck Place, patients are cared for while the fullness of the whole family is embraced. That’s how our employees want to feel, too – the embrace of support for Canuck Place highlights the relationship we share. 

And then there are the cookies. If you know, you know - Canuck Place is where the cookie jar is always full. Baking 100,000 cookies a year, Canuck Place bakes all sorts of varieties for patients and their families. The flavours change but the love and sense of belonging created does not. We are convinced the cookies are part of the secret sauce, offering much needed comfort and consistency. Whether to celebrate mighty victories or guide loved ones through loss, cookies speak a universal language of comfort, bringing some everyday normal to families of children with complex care needs.  

Thank you, Canuck Place. Your extraordinary commitment to patient care, compassion, and love for our community is priceless.