Members of the Rich Lake Recreation and Agricultural Society will have a lot less fundraising to do if their luck holds next month. The Rec. and Ag.
Members of the Rich Lake Recreation and Agricultural Society will have a lot less fundraising to do if their luck holds next month.
The Rec. and Ag. Society has been selected as a finalist in the fourth round of UFA’ s uniquely pay-it-forward 2015 Get ‘n’ Give contest, so the group is in the running to win $50,000.
“It feels amazing,” said Society secretary and fundraising committee chairperson Debbie Vezeau. “It feels like all of our hard work has been recognized.”
The winnings would be used to fund the second phase of construction on Rich Lake’ s new and enhanced community centre. Work on the facility started in June 2014 but has encountered some financial setbacks, so the $50,000 prize could be put to immediate use catching up, Vezeau says.
To get UFA’ s attention and meet the requirements of the contest, the Society adopted a multimedia approach with its submission.
“We submitted a 500-word essay...and then a four-and-a-half-minute YouTube video,” said Vezeau. The video begins with a slideshow of images dating all the way back to 1967, when the original community centre was built, and includes testimonials from members of the Rich Lake community.
The old community hall is unusable, Society members say, because a dangerous amount of mold was found in the building.
“It hasn’ t been condemned at this point, but the health inspector has deemed it unsafe for public use,” Vezeau said.
The new community centre will be a vast improvement over the old facility, she says. It’ s expected to contain a larger banquet hall, an improved seniors’ centre, a second-floor youth recreation area and an agriplex. Vezeau says the agriplex will be a particularly noteworthy addition.
“There’ s cattle penning, there’ s barrel racing, there’ s bull riding-the possibilities are endless for that portion of the building,” she said. “We could do ATV safety courses in there. Heck, we could even do a barn dance.”
She’ s not sure of the construction timelines for the new building, since the second phase is only just beginning.
“The shell of the building is completely up and fully insulated,” she said.
Now internal work like installing electrical systems needs to be done.
The winner in this round of UFA’ s contest will be selected in mid-March. UFA spokesperson Laura Lampman says the contest is designed to benefit not-for-profit groups working to enhance the quality of life in rural communities, which is why the Rich Lake group’ s community centre project is noteworthy.
“(In submissions) we’ re looking at projects that benefit the whole community and that are going to be around for a long time,” Lampman said. “What’ s neat is it’ s a pay-it-forward contest, so the last winner chooses the next one.”
The last winner was the Cassils Community Centre Building Committee, near Brooks. They’ ll be selecting the next winner on March 16.
Two days ahead of that, though, the Rich Lake Rec. and Ag. Society plans to hold a fundraiser to gather more dollars for their hall’ s construction.
Vezeau says the event, running from 1-5:30 p.m. outside the old community centre, should include wagon rides, skating and open-house tours of the new building, among other attractions. The price of admission will be $10 per person, or $35 for parents with children.
