by Levin Ifko
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend the 2026 Chinook Fund Dinner as a guest of Kevin’s.
For readers who aren’t familiar, the Chinook Fund began in 2001, when a group of founders, including Gordon Sombrowski and Kevin Allen (prior to starting the Calgary Gay History Project), took note of how hard it was to find grants and other funding for organizations providing essential support and resources to 2SLGBTQ+ Calgarians. To bridge this gap, they invited their friends over for dinner, in exchange for donations that would go towards supporting these local groups. Twenty-five years later, this dinner still takes place annually!
In 2026, the Chinook Fund gave grants to Rainbow Elders Calgary, One Yellow Rabbit, SewProud YYC, Sharpe Foundation, and Skipping Stone Foundation, whose funded projects range from providing community resources and harm reduction services to arts programming and workshops.
The final award of the night, the 2026 Hero Award, was given to Skipping Stone Foundation.
Skipping Stone Foundation is approaching its tenth anniversary in 2027, which seems hard to believe, considering just how much they have done in under a decade. So-much-so that when I tell trans folks (those even younger than I am) that I came out before Skipping Stone, I’m met with quite a bit of surprise. Skipping Stone has become almost ubiquitous with transgender support services and healthcare in the city. Even in the province—where their advocacy has become even more essential in the wake of provincial anti-trans legislation.
At this Chinook Fund Dinner, I had the chance to catch up with Amelia Newbert and Lindsay Peace, the co-founders of Skipping Stone, who I know through becoming involved with the organization early in its conception. We reminisced about Skipping Stone’s very first office—a tiny room on the top floor of the McHugh House. I still remember following Amelia up the stairs, when she excitedly showed me her shared desk and the room’s narrow closet that was used to store donated gender affirming gear. In their current office, this narrow closet has grown to fill an entire room, one of many in the space. When I visited this office last year, it felt like something I could have only imagined in my most hopeful moments.
Seeing the organization win this award felt special not only as a marker of their steadfast support of trans people over the last ten years, but also on a personal level. Years before Skipping Stone was even conceived, I met Lindsay Peace through the Camp fYrefly network. Through her experience as a parent to another trans youth, she became a support to my own family, making phone calls and sending information to help them navigate my own coming out and transition as a teenager.
At this time, resources and supports were emerging, but were part of a system that was largely word-of-mouth. Without a roadmap, or knowing any other out trans people, the healthcare system, and government documentation, was a highly confusing world to navigate. This community network became the basis for Skipping Stone itself, whose central mission was to help people navigate these convoluted pathways to accessing information and resources about transition and gender healthcare.
The news of this award came shortly after the grand opening of Skipping Stone’s housing program, which now provides low-barrier housing for twenty-one transgender people in the city, many of whom were experiencing homelessness or were in precarious living situations beforehand. This continues to accomplish something that queer and trans people have been doing for centuries, learning how to be there for one another on a consistent and ongoing basis.
As many 2SLGBTQIA+ organizations across the country report a loss of funding and support over the past couple of years, the Chinook Fund’s award is an important celebration of this work, and a reminder that it often comes down to queer and trans people to support one another.
{LI}
