Car deal spins donations to DFC initiative

Wasaya Group Inc. has a car deal for you, or more accurately, DFC.
For every vehicle purchased from three car dealerships in Winnipeg, $300 will be donated to Wasaya Wee-Chee-Way-Win Inc. to provide programs and initiatives for Dennis Franklin Cromarty First Nations High School students in Thunder Bay.
“We made the first sale last week,” said Wasaya Group president and CEO Tom Kamenawatamin, noting the first customer was a police officer from Sioux Lookout. “We will be looking at all of our subsidiary companies to get their vehicles from there.”
Wasaya Group partnered with Mid-Town Ford Sales Ltd., Waverley Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ltd. and Gauthier Cadillac Buick GMC in Winnipeg to provide a convenient way for people to purchase a new or used vehicle based on Wasaya Group’s preferred pricing.
“We need to do this because the initiatives we have here are not really covered by the government,” Kamenawatamin said. “The only option I had was to approach businesses for the youth initiatives.”
Kamenawatamin has a long list of businesses he will be approaching in the future to help with the youth initiatives.
Kamenawatamin said the car dealerships will offer customers under the program the same price as offered on their websites.
“The cost of the vehicle won’t jump,” Kamenawatamin said. “We have talked to them extensively how important it is if we want to do this fundraising with them that the customers are satisfied.”
Customers just need to tell the car dealership they want to buy their vehicle through the Wasaya program to become involved in the $300 donation initiative.
The development of a student residence at DFC is the main initiative already identified by students at DFC.
“They feel that if they had a residence right at the school site, they would feel more comfortable and safer,” Kamenawatamin said. “Right now they are all over the city and they feel it is not safe for them.”
Other identified initiatives include peer-to-peer leadership programs in the communities for students who will be going off to DFC for the first time, counselling services and spiritual services.