After finishing major upgrades to their park, the Melfort Rotary Club celebrated with Filipino food, children’s games, karaoke and disc golf.
The club’s Party in the Park was held Sept. 10. Bill Selnes was chair of the Rotary committee that organized the event.
“We have all of these things to celebrate: the park itself, the upgrades to the park, the sponsors, Canada’s 150th, joining together with new Canadians – the Filipino community – to make a community event that was different than many of the community events that are ongoing,”
The park has been a major project of the club for more than four decades. Last year, the club received a $70,000 grant from the Federated Co-ops’ Community Spaces grants and $5,000 from the Affinity Credit Union. The Saskatchewan Scrap Tire Corporation and the City of Melfort also made contributions. The result: there’s a new children’s playground with a rubber pad, covered picnic tables and some of the paths have been repaved with substance made of recycled tires.
“Having received substantial grants, we wanted to recognize our sponsors at a public event. All of the years I’ve been in Rotary – I’ve been a member of the club for 35 years – we’ve never actually held a function in the park, so we’d thought we’d combine a number of things today,” Selnes said.
The event was also held to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday.
“It seemed appropriate as part of a Canadian celebration to join with one of the newest groups of Canadians in our community, the Filipino community,” Selnes said.
One of the items they wanted at the party was food, so Selnes decided to approach Cris Olayvar, the president of the Filipino Community of Melfort, and asked if they would be willing to cook dishes found all over the Philippines for the club. Olayvar said that wasn’t a hard decision to make.
“Back in 2013, when the Philippines was hit by a typhoon, Rotary had donated a pretty big amount of cash to the affected area that was devastated,” he said. “We didn’t have a second thought helping them with this event because they helped us, so we should help them also.”
Selnes said he was pleased with how the event went, estimating almost 300 people came. As for the newly upgraded park, the organizer said the new playground and the disc golf course would provide lots of fun for both young and old.
“I think the quality of life in Melfort has been improved a bit and that people have an outdoor space to look forward to and enjoy within the community.”
Olayvar said he also enjoys the park.
“It’s a beautiful and well-maintained park and when I first saw this park, I urged all of my Filipino friends to have lunch here, spend the day here, do some barbequing.”
