Volunteers working hard to build a new outdoor rink recreation facility in Midland have topped $100,000 and growing in fundraising as they work towards making the project a reality.
“We’ve been doing really well,” said Cindy Sereda, who has been helping to spearhead the project. “It has been going a lot faster than I originally thought it would be, which is wonderful.”
After a recent bottle drive and garage sale, as well as many generous donations and sponsorships, she says they are sitting at $108,789.41.
She says this includes monetary donations and in-kind donations. She notes that in-kind donations are important because they can use them as they seek matching donations in their coming applications for a Community Facility Enhancement Program (CFEP) grant.
She said The Midland Community Hall also had a casino night fundraiser to keep it viable, which went over well.
“We need to keep the hall going to keep the rink going,” she said.
With their fundraising, they are just over a third of their way to the goal they set before they apply for the CFEP grant, and have a few other applications in the works including a grant from the Westview Co-op Community Spaces Grant.
“We are really hopeful for that because it could be up to $150,000. We have some other business sponsors that are pending, still making their final decision,” she said. “Everything is falling into place. We have amazing community support between monetary and in-kind donations. There’s a lot of momentum.”
She said if everything comes through their goal is to start demolition of the current rink in the spring of 2023 and then have the project completed for the coming winter season.
On Thursday, June 2, during Accessibility Awareness Week, they invited Ryan Straschnitzki to speak at the Badlands Community Facility. Straschnitzki was a member of the Humboldt Broncos and was involved in the bus crash in 2018 that took 16 people’s lives. He was paralyzed from the waist down. He is an avid sledge hockey player.
“This is open to the public as a free event, and we’ll take donations for the outdoor rink at the door. They can come hear from Ryan and hear his story and the importance of having public accessible spaces, especially one that is designed for sledge hockey as well,” said Sereda. “From day one when I first reached out to him, he was a big supporter of the project, being able to have outdoor rinks that are designed for sledge hockey players.”
Straschnitzki will speak at 6 p.m. go to https://www.eventcreate.com/e/ryanstraschnitzki to preregister.
