Choices donates $5,000 to BCT

March 10, 2026

By: Michael Riley, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

On Feb. 18, Choices Gift and Thrift Shop donated $5,000 to Bancroft Community Transit to help support local medical transportation. Choices president Emily O’Neill and BCT executive director Gwen Coish comment to The Bancroft Times on this generous donation.

Choices announced their donation of $5,000 to BCT on their Facebook page on Feb. 18. In addition to this donation, they have also donated recently to Hospice North Hastings ($600), North Hastings Public Library ($1,600 for the large print book program), Bancroft Family Health Team ($4,511.82 for their diabetes program), and Hastings Centennial Manor ($14,575.87 for towel and blanket warmers). Overall, over $26,000 donated to these five organizations. They donated to BCT to help support local medical transportation, and they thanked their hardworking volunteers who made it possible and to everyone who shops and donates, saying that their support stays right here in town, and thanking everyone for helping them support such a vital local service like BCT.

BCT was founded in 2001, and is a non-profit that provides non-urgent medical transportation services that takes away barriers allowing people to get the social assistance and medical attention they need. They’ve been providing non-urgent medical transit service since 2015 in Belleville and the surrounding area, and for the past eight years, they’ve also been providing public transit in the northern part of Hastings County. They have a fixed route service in the Town of Bancroft, and it’s also fed by an on-demand service that shuttle in from Hastings Highlands and Wollaston as well as Cardiff in Highlands East. For more information on BCT go to their website at www.bancroftcommunitytransit.com.

Choices Gift and Thrift Shop at 12 Flint Ave. is a non-profit selling new and used clothing, accessories and housewares, donated by the community. They give back by donating to various healthcare causes throughout Bancroft and the surrounding area. For more information, go to www.facebook.com/ChoicesGiftThriftShop/.

O’Neill told The Bancroft Times that Choices Gift and Thrift shop volunteers are pleased to support BCT.

“This recent donation is for medical transportation services. Thank you to our hard-working volunteers, those who donate and shop. You helping us … help our community!” she says.

Coish told The Bancroft Times that their one pressing need continues to be replacement vehicles for their aging fleet.

“Our vehicles shuttle people every day to a variety of medical appointments, for life-saving medical care. They also shuttle food to individuals in our community that are recuperating from medical conditions or surgeries, or those that have a disability that leave them housebound. So, funds that we receive right now will go to our capital fundraising campaign ‘Drive-4-Change,’ that is ongoing until we have reached our goal of $140,000. Just an FYI, the average kilometres we drive annually is over 500,000, with an average of 20,000 trips for critical care. The costs of replacing these vehicles have risen beyond anything we could have imagined. An accessible wheelchair van costs approx. $140,000, and an accessible Promaster (like the one we use for public transit and for group trips for North Hastings Manor outings), costs approx. $180,000. The group at Choices have gone above and beyond to help so many in this community,” she says. “Such a hardworking, caring group, and we are so very grateful to them for this donation which will help us to continue to serve so many!”