The Pastor of Blumenort EMC says it was gratifying to hear news this week that his community is among the most giving in Canada.

Statistics Canada has reported the median charitable donation from those claiming a donation in 2013 was $3,500 from Blumenort residents compared to a national average of $280.

"I was grateful, often times I hear stories of people who follow Christ and those who don't that there's no visible difference between them," says Barry Plett. "The percentage of Christians and Christ followers in this region I think is higher and it's beautiful to me that that correlates with the generosity of people. If that wasn't the case I'd be disappointed."

Plett says this generosity is evident in his Church where there has been a strong tradition of giving towards charity, towards those in need and towards mission projects around the world. He says it's something people have been taught and something rooted in the Bible in passages such as Luke 12:48b - "from everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."

And Plett says it is because of this generosity that his Church has been able to do things such as purchase and operate a summer camp. The camp is run seven weeks a year, allowing local kids as well as First Nations children from Whitedog to attend.

According to Plett, this generous spirit is being taught to the next generations at Blumenort EMC.

"As the giving in our Church has been tracked, we have repeatedly been surprised at the fact that the giving does not just come from the sixty and over people," explains Plett. "It's pretty well equally spread throughout the congregation in the different demographics."

Meanwhile, Statistics Canada also ruled Steinbach the most generous city in Canada based on charitable donations for 2013. John Peters (right inset), Executive Director for Bethesda Foundation says he's not one bit surprised.

"I think we've always known that the people in the community have been wonderfully generous to our foundation and to many other charitable organizations," says Peters. "It's very humbling and gratifying to know that we live in a community that is so open and generous."

Peters says if not for people in the southeast opening their wallets, there wouldn't be a cancer care facility or birthing centre at Bethesda Regional Health Centre in Steinbach.

"We raised way more than the ten per cent required for a capital project," says Peters. "In fact I think it ended up being nearly half the project was donated by local donors."

And Peters says donations continue to increase year after year. Peters says their most recent Gifts of Light campaign in December generated a record amount of donations.

"I think our area is doing well economically and people just are prone to give, when things go well they give," he says. "And I think we've been the beneficiary of that and of course the community benefits by some of these generous gifts."

Peters is excited by what he's seeing from the next generation too. He notes schools are doing a wonderful job in promoting philanthropy and knows it's being taught in Churches too.

"It's just part of the fabric of the community," he says. "That's how we're raised and that's how we raise our children to give and to share."

(Courtesy Statistics Canada)