Vegreville, Alberta, August 16, 2005 – The Vegreville Public Library is benefiting from the Farm Credit Canada (FCC) AgriSpirit Fund with a donation of $15,000.

Through the FCC AgriSpirit Fund, the Vegreville Public Library is expanding its facility to better serve residents in surrounding counties and across Alberta. Currently, this facility offers an interlibrary loan program for the province as well as directly serving 5,376 people in Vegreville and 1,718 people in the western half of the County of Minburn. The Vegreville Public Library provides literacy-based programs focusing on children and outreach services while offering a warm welcoming place for all community members. With an expanded facility, the library will be able to offer more programming, much-needed meeting facilities for community organizations and grow their collection of materials, offering newer, more timely resources.

“We’re proud to give back to rural Canada and to the community of Vegreville where our customers and employees live and work,” says FCC District Manager Alberta East, Sandy Kirtzinger. “The enthusiasm of Canadians is evident in the effort required to accomplish projects of this magnitude in our rural communities. It’s that spirit and passion that makes Vegreville a great place to live.”

“When organizations such as Farm Credit Canada come forward to help with our project (through financial and volunteer hour donations) you realize just how big and far reaching your project is and just how community-minded an organization is,” says Amber Zary, Director Library Services, Vegreville Public Library.

In November 2004, FCC announced the AgriSpirit Fund. This Fund awarded $400,000 towards capital projects for rural communities with populations under 100,000. FCC selected 38 projects from 489 applications and will donate between $5,000 to $25,000 per venture to create or enhance facilities in these communities. A significant amount of time and consideration went into each evaluation including how the project would make a difference to the population of the rural area.

The FCC AgriSpirit Fund will continue for a second year. Details regarding the eligibility criteria and application process will be posted this fall through the FCC website at www.fcc-fac.ca.

Operating out of 100 offices located primarily in rural Canada, FCC employees are passionate about the business of agriculture. FCC's healthy portfolio of more than $11 billion and 12 consecutive years of portfolio growth are a reflection of our customers' success.

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For more information, please contact:

Sandy Kirtzinger
Farm Credit Canada
District Manager
(780) 679-3254

Nadine Hakim
Farm Credit Canada (Bilingual)
Corporate Communications
(306) 780-8572