Youth charity selected for annual Fox Wrap-A-Van

Fox explained the Kamloops-based organization creates a “comfortable environment” for children and youth who have experienced maltreatment while connecting them to a group of support providers in an effort to limit the time it takes to get help and access services.

“It’s a volunteer organization doing an amazing thing, filling in some gaps to really support those people in need,” Fox stated.

“Very exciting and very inspiring. It’s really exciting to be have groups stepping up and making these types of programs and improving this service.”

The organization’s banner has been wrapped around one of the Fox vans, and use of that vehicle will benefit the charity.

“We wrap a van for the winner to get them promotion, visually get their branding out and get more awareness in the community, and then we also share a percentage of the profits of the work that that van does in the calendar year with that organization.” Fox explained.

“So we get their name out there, we get their logo out there, and we contribute some money from profits from that vehicle. It’s a great way to get all sorts of support for the organizations.”

Big Bear was selected as the winner this year through a community voting process, which Fox said saw great participation.

“This year we got 225,091 votes, which we feel pretty proud about,” she said.

“That seems like pretty great engagement and a big part of that is these organizations asking their people, reaching out and saying ‘please vote for us, we want to win this contest, we want to get this revenue and this exposure.’ So really, really great participation. It’s a number we’re really proud of.”

In addition to unveiling the new Wrap-A-Van group, Fox presented the previous year’s winner, the Animal Auxillary Thrift Store, with a cheque for $2,933, raised through the van’s use in 2023.

“I think [that total] is a great start,” Fox told Vernon Matters.

“I personally would love to see it more ambitious, but we’re happy to do what we can, we’re happy to be able to give over a cheque like that, and I hope it helps them in some way that makes their operations better and helps them reach more people. It’s a decent start but I’d like to see it go up from there.”

As of time of publication, one of the vans was still wrapped with the banner for the Animal Auxillary, and Fox stated that logo would be taken down in the near future, but until then, the organization would continue to benefit from the visual advertisement.

The current and the previous winners of the wrap-a-van initiative (photo by Liam Verster / Vernon Matters)

Runners-up of the Wrap-A-Van voting were also presented with some cheques. Sammy’s Forgotten Felines, Turning Points Collaborative Society, and the Vernon District Association for Community Living were each gifted $500 from Fox Ltd.

“We’re thrilled to be able to hand out those amounts and to support those organizations that our community stepped up and said these were people they wanted to take the win,” Fox added.

by Liam Verster

Youth charity selected for annual Fox Wrap-A-Van

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