Folks at Aldergrove Financial (a.k.a. Aldergrove Credit Union and its subsiduaries) and the team at Envision Financial are sure coming through big time for charity, of late.

There's been donations of more than $100,000

from these two Langley-based financial institutions given to regional hospitals in the past few weeks. Wow!

It's nice to see the business community stepping up in such a significant way, and I want to applaud those efforts.

Aldergrove, for instance, presented a $50,000 cheque to the Langley Memorial Hospital Foundation this week. The money is earmarked towards construction of an expanded maternity ward at the local hospital.

Okay, it's not anything in the neighbourhood of the $1 million donated last month by the Vandekerkhove family - Super Save Group of companies - but it all helps and goes a long ways towards the $11.66 million needed to make the expansion a reality. Fraser Health is coming through with $6.31 million, and the hospital foundation has to come through with the rest.

The maternity ward fundraising campaign, aptly named It All Starts Here, kicked off last month.

Aldergrove Financial's CEO Gus Hartl said the commitment to give to this community initiative is in keeping with the institution's civic commitment.

"Our support of the Langley Memorial Hospital helps support families in our growing and thriving community. We've supported the foundation for years and couldn't think of a better way to continue our support," he said.

And AF's giving to hospitals doesn't end there.

Just last week, the staff gave a further $18,000 to BC Children's Hospital.

"Our staff truly put their hearts into this fundraising initiative to provide funds for the children and families that are in need of care and support through the BC Children's Hospital," the boss explained. He pointed to bake sales, gift basket and jersey raffles, penny drives, jeans days, and slo-pitch tournaments as just some of the means in which his staff raised the money.

As I alluded earlier, AF isn't the only financial institution stepping up to aid our ailing system. Earlier this month, Envision Financial employees presented more than $50,000 at the annual Miracle Telethon, to help sick kids.

. More at langleyadvance.com

rhooper@langleyadvance.com