The Parksville Bottle Depot, located at 611A Alberni Hwy., will be accepting donations for B.C. wildfire victims until the end of the month, bottle depot owner Louise Tyler said.
As of Tuesday (Aug. 15), Tyler said, $1,800 has been donated to the fund with more than $700 coming from the resorts on Resort Drive.
Paul Drummond, general manager at Tigh-Na-Mara Seaside Spa Resort and Conference Centre, said the resort initiated the same kind of fund last year for the residents of Fort McMurray after an employee suggested it.
“He came up to me this year and he said, ‘We did it for Fort McMurray, we really gotta do it again because it’s close to home.’ I said, ‘You’re right,’” Drummond said.
This year, Drummond said, he put a call out to seven other resorts on the drive to help with donations.
“It’s totally up to them whether they do or they don’t, but I thought it’d be nice to at least have Resort Drive, because we’re starting to do so many more other things together,” he said.
Drummond said he’s thinking the resort will continue to donate for another week or two.
“If we could get up, close to that $2,000 range that will be absolutely brilliant,” Drummond said. “If it’s $2 or $10 worth of bottles, it all adds up.”
People interested in donating their empty bottles to the fund can bring their bottles to the Parksville Bottle Depot and ask for the money to be put into the fund.
Tyler said the bottle depot will be donating the funds directly to Salvation Army chapters located in the communities that were hardest hit, but she said she still needs to do the research on which communities those are.
Oceanside Emergency Support Services actually helped about 40 people who were evacuated from their homes to the Parksville Qualicum Beach area.
“If it happened to us,” Tyler said, “I would hope they would do the same.”