Closing Melita church donates $175K reserve to local causes

The Victoria United Church has donated roughly $175,000 to local organizations following its closure in Melita.

The church hosted its last service on April 19 due to an aging church council that no longer felt it could sustain the work required of it, board chair Neil Franklin told the Sun in a recent interview. The board decided to donate the church’s reserves to local community organizations that had a connection to the church.

“We wanted to keep our funds within the town that have a meaning to church,” he said. “Every one we chose, there was a reason it was associated with church.”

Three examples of recipients included the Melita Early Learning Centre, the Prairie Vision Arts Council and the Melita and Area Handivan.

Franklin said that the church picked the learning centre because youth are a “mainstay” and “hope” of any church community — and young people participated in events for many years. The learning centre received $10,000.

“Though we disband, we continue to care for the well-being and healthy development of young people in our community,” he said, reading from the church’s written statement.

Regarding the Prairie Vision Arts Council, the church board noted that “the arts have been an important part of life” at the church. The board said that skits and plays had been held in the building over the years, and “music in all its forms, and drama and visual arts have been central to life of the congregation.” The church donated $12,000 to the arts council.

In addition, the church donated $55,000 to the Handi-Van. Franklin said the organization helped bring senior citizens to church and funeral services. Melita and Area Handivan co-ordinator Greg Freeman told the Sun in a recent interview that $50,000 of those funds will be used to cover about half the cost of a new van to replace an aging seven-seater.

“It really takes a lot of weight off us, myself, the board, in trying to come up with that money. It’s something that has definitely been on my mind a lot, finding the funds for it,” Freeman said of the new van, which is expected sometime in 2027. “This will help immensely.”

The fact the Handi-Van service now has half the money for a new vehicle will make it easier to secure government grants to cover the rest of the purchase, he said. “It definitely means we won’t have to look for as big a grant from any of the government sources.”

Freeman said the remainder of the money from the church, about $5,000, will go to the organization’s operating expenses.

The Melita and Area Handivan makes trips to Brandon at least once a month to shuttle residents to appointments. Its seven-seater van is used primarily for this, and has “rusted out pretty good” over the years and collected more than 200,000 kilometres on the odometre, Freeman said. The seven-seater is set to be replaced, and the organization is considering switching to a minivan to be more cost effective.

Ten local organizations received donations on Sept. 9. The church also made a donation to the United Church of Canada, and nearby organizations such as Rock Lake United Church Camp, Franklin said.

The church was financially healthy and its closure had nothing to do with money — it stemmed from a lack of a new generation taking up responsibilities, Franklin said.

“The church closed due to an aging church council, meaning our board. There were no younger generations attending or volunteering or that type of thing. Everybody was, we used the word ‘tired,’ because it was the same group doing the same things.”

The duties to manage the church became unsustainable, he said. It was unfortunate, but everyone seemed to be on the same page this year.

“It wasn’t a finance issue — we had financial assets. We were just, we just say ‘people-poor’. That is the way we say it.”

The church had a congregation of 10 to 15 people. Its financial reserves were raised through investments, and a donation from the estate of a former member of the church, Franklin said.

» cmcdowell@brandonsun.com