"Where there's a will, there's a way," says Cathy Savage, Coordinator at the Winkler Family Resource Centre (WFRC).

While WFRC had to halt all in-person programming under the Code Red public health restrictions, Savage says they still wanted to keep things going during this current lockdown, noting lots of parents who access the centre felt quite isolated during the first round in March.

As a result, she says everyone had to embrace a virtual platform for the time-being.

"It just gives the parents a little break," explained Savage. "They can sit and have a cup of coffee while their children watch the program, or be there while their child is doing it, and then after the parents and the children will do a craft together so that kind of brings them together."

After, she says parents can snap a photo of those crafts and send them in to be posted on the WFRC Facebook page. "And the kids can look at it and say 'hey, I made that!"

This approach required much planning in order to create craft bags that included four weeks worth of activities, but Savage added keeping everyone connected is now as simple as turning on a device and offering children a half-an-hour opportunity to see their friends.

Meantime, WFRC is among the many organizations in the Pembina Valley feeling the financial effects of the pandemic.

Savage says public health restrictions have prevented the centre from hosting its usual fund raisers this year.

"We do have funding but it covers all of our expenses for the essentials, and fund raisers bring in a little extra income so we can do other things," she explained.

Meantime, WFRC is working on hosting a prize-draw calendar fund raiser in February and Savage says they hope to include local businesses in the effort.