Family Rink receives $75,000

Times Reporter 

 

The Strathmore Family Outdoor Rink project, to be placed between Strathmore High School and the baseball complex, was granted $75,000 from the Alberta Lottery Fund. The Strathmore Agriclutural Society is in collaboration with the town, the Lions Club, the Kinsmen Club and the Global Legacy Fund to complete the project in 2014.

“What we’ve been doing over the last year is been organizing. We’re hoping to build this outdoor rink with the community support,” said Operation Manager of the Ag Society, Jessica Hall. “What we’re going to be doing is paving the complex so it can be used in the winter months for the usual sorts of activities you would think of with an outdoor rink, but then also, during the summer months used for basketball and lacrosse.”

After the society brainstormed the idea, they applied for the Community Facility Enhancement Program through the Alberta Lottery Fund.

“The project itself is going to be expensive – approximately $250,000. We asked for 50 per cent, because usually grants are matching, but nonetheless, we were granted $75,000 and we’re over the moon excited with the opportunity,” Hall said. “It’s giving us somewhere to start from — it’s great.”

With the Strathmore Family Centre at near capacity, an extension to that facility may benefit more children. However, the Ag Society believes family recreation is important, and that a space is needed to accommodate fun sports, too.

“For us, as the Ag Society, our mission is to promote recreational facilities. Where we saw a need, was the recreational side of hockey or figure skating – those types of things,” Hall said. “Right now, the schedule at the Family Centre, is 98 per cent booked with organized sports and we want to give the opportunity for all of the families to utilize the outdoor rink for recreational use.”

If teams wish to use the Outdoor Rink for practice, they can, but only for fun.

“We’re not going to book the facility to teams and that sort of thing, because what we’re promoting is the use for families,” Hall said.