A year to the day of the launch of their community fundraising drive, the goal has been reached for Battlefords Trade and Education Centre.
The My Community Care campaign has met their $2.3 million fundraising target for a new building, which is now under construction.
Pius Pfeifer, a major contributor to the project, used the words “mission accomplished” to describe the feat at the announcement Friday at their existing facility on 102nd Street. The announcement coincided with the annual art show held at the facility.
At that event Friday a number of funding announcements were made and those include the following:
• Chief Richard Okemow announced a $50,000 commitment from Battlefords Tribal Council, consisting of a cheque for $20,000 with two more installments of $15,000 to come in the next two years;
• $25,000 from the family of Greg and Brenda Lightfoot;
• $10,000 from L7 Electric, Rob and Laura Squair, who are also doing the electrical project for the new building;
• $10,000 from Canadian Tire North Battleford;
• A $20,000 in-kind donation towards furniture and appliances from Battleford Furniture - Chris Odishaw;
• $200,000 from BATC Community Development Corporation, with the chair of BATC CDC Don Buglas on hand Friday;
• $5,000 from Don and Joyce Salie;
• $35,000 from Terry Tait;
• $50,000 from the accounting firm of Holm Raiche Olberg, with $20,000 from Dallan Oberg;
• $25,000 from Dr. Matt Pruden;
• $2,000 from Len and Jackie Pawlus of Pawlus Insurance to sponsor a couple of benches; and
• A donation was made from River City Plumbing and Heating.
Finally the law firm of DBF Law (Ivan Frank) provided a discount on the legal work and the land titles transfer for the project.
A number of other contributors to the project were on hand at the event Friday, including Pius Pfeifer, who along with his wife Ida contributed $500,000 towards the project.
The new BTEC building is being named the Pius and Ida Pfeifer Building in recognition. Their contribution was announced at the sod turning earlier this year.
The BTEC My Community Cares campaign had started its final financial push earlier this fall. They had needed another $150,000 to reach their target, and had set Nov. 20 as the date to reach that target and wrap up the campaign.
At the event Friday, they reported that many of the donations came through with about a week to go. My Community Cares fundraising co-chair Rob Rongve said it wasn’t really close until last Friday, when he got a call from Russ Brown of BTC about their $50,000.
“Once we got that call,” said Rongve, “we realized, holy cow, we can probably get to our goal.” After that the “floodgates opened” and more donations rolled in.
While the building campaign goal has been met, BTEC will continue its ongoing fundraising efforts for furnishing, equipment and the other items they will need at the facility.
Lyndon Heinemann, a volunteer and a board member with BTEC, expressed his amazement to reporters about how successful the building campaign has gone.
“I knew that the campaign would reach its goal, but I didn’t think it would be in a year,” said Heinemann.
“The last week was incredible,” he added. “The outpouring of generosity seemed to come in, and that put us over the top.”
