The Ladysmith Community Fund Society (LCFS) was formed in 2020 to establish a community endowment fund to serve the Ladysmith area. An agreement was signed in 2021 with the Nanaimo Foundation to hold the fund and manage it together with it’s other assets.
LCFS is pleased to state that, with the community’s support, we have issued grants to local charities over the last 3 years! Grants are issued from the investment earnings of the endowment fund. Your donations help grow the fund so that more local charities can be supported. Tax receipts for donations will be issued by the Nanaimo Foundation.
Ladysmith Community Fund Society Board
Bruce Whittington, President
Bruce has called Ladysmith home for seventeen years. A former Victoria resident, he was a founder of Habitat Acquisition Trust, a community land trust there. He has been a small business owner, a municipal councillor, freelance writer, photographer and naturalist, and he worked with his wife Wanda Dombrowski, a painter, until recently, when she sold her picture framing business in Ladysmith. He has been an avid birder for over fifty years, and is also an amateur luthier. (Photo by Duck Paterson)
Joan Phillips, Vice President
Joan has retired from her career as a notary public in Ladysmith. She is an active member of the Ladysmith Rotary Club, and can sometimes be found paddling dragon boats in the harbour. (Photo by Duck Paterson)
Lynda Baker, Secretary
Lynda retired and moved to Ladysmith from Coquitlam in 2017. Ladysmith looked like a community she could be passionate about. She was a founding member of the Port Moody Foundation and believes in the power a foundation has to serve a community.
Lynda owned her own business in Port Moody which she sold and decided to travel around the world for a year. On her return she started volunteering for the Port Moody Festival Society which resulted in a job with the Port Moody Arts Centre Society as their Gallery and Events Manger. She left the arts centre to work for the City of Coquitlam’s Cultural department to manage a Cultural Capitals of Canada grant and moved on to develop an event department, public art acquisitions and cultural community relations.
Lynda spends her time volunteering in the community, gardening and cleaning beaches.
Stephanie Moore, Director
Stephanie has long history of working with non-profit organizations. Her experience includes grant writing, strategic planning, workshop development and facilitation, volunteer management and special projects. Stephanie joined the LCF board in 2025 and looks forward to helping to further develop the organization.
Marnie Craig, Treasurer
Bio and photo coming soon!
Don Allan, Director
Bio and photo coming soon!
Carol Warkentin, Director
Bio and photo coming soon!
Pathfinders
There are people along the way who shared the vision of a permanent community endowment fund for Ladysmith. They contributed their experience and time, sitting on various steering committees as we worked to bring the Ladysmith Community Fund to life. Some moved on in support of other community initiatives, or because of career changes. We acknowledge their contributions, and thank them for sharing our vision.
- Doug Bell
- Gerry Beltgens
- Kim Ethier
- Tammy Leslie
- Linda Mix
- Duck Paterson
- Charlie Schaal
- Rod Smith
- Donna Soules
- Marshall Soules
- Christy Wood
We gratefully acknowledge that we live and do the work of the Ladysmith Community Fund Society on the traditional territory of the Stz’uminus First Nation.