Anderson House receives $90K from Island burger campaign

A P.E.I. emergency shelter for women and children will have to figure out how to spend $90,000.

The money was raised through P.E.I's Burger Love campaign in April. Dozens of restaurants competed against one another using local beef to crown the top burger in the province.

Some of the proceeds went to support Anderson House.

"As an organization the board and staff are so very grateful to the community, all people across the Island that helped make this money possible," said Danya O'Malley, executive director of Anderson House.

"That's no small amount of money to us."

Money can go a long way

Anderson House is a small organization so the money can go a long way, O'Malley said.

"It's a huge amount of money to receive through not really a lot of effort on our part."

Often Anderson House has to run various events such as golf tournaments to raise money, and might earn $15,000, O'Malley said.

O'Malley said the non-profit organization has to raise 30 per cent of its budget every year.

"I think a good portion of this can be seen as extra, as helping us to move beyond what we have always done."

"For example, we have a youth program that is in just a few junior highs across the Island, could we expand that? Could we hit more schools? Could we do different projects with couples who have unhealthy relationship dynamics between them?"

The money comes at a great time. The organization is in the process of designing a new five-year plan, O'Malley said.

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