It’s now up to the family, friends and supporters of the Estevan 2016 Saskatchewan Summer Games committee to ensure the event is as great as it can be.
The committee is vying for a $50,000 to $100,000 grant through the Aviva Insurance Community Fund. In order to access this grant, the committee first needst all their supporters to vote for their bid at avivacommunityfund.org over the next 17 days.
Everyone is allowed one vote for the ‘Energizing the Games and Estevan’ bid each day until Oct. 23. If the Summer Games committee gets enough votes their bid will move on to the month and a half long judging stage, which decides if and how much money they
should be awarded.
Nicole Clow, manager of the 2016 Summer Games, said, if they win, the prize would be put towards finishing touches for the track such as new sheds, landscaping work and fencing, as well as resurfacing the tennis courts. She said depending on how much money they receive they could also apply funding to a lot of other needs including upgrades to Cactus Park.
“Everything that we do we have to raise money for,” said Clow. “We’re still looking for sponsorship and other fundraising within the community and within the province. We have a big scheme of what we’d love to offer and it all is dependent on the amount of funding we get. Something like this, an additional $50,000 or $100,000, could really increase some of the upgrades that we’re looking at doing.”
To receive the grant the Summer Games bid will have to receive enough votes to place them in the top 15 of the Aviva Insurance Community Fund’s Community Health category, which includes bids from projects spread throughout Canada. If the Estevan bid gets enough votes, a judging panel will determine if it deserves a grant and then how much it should be rewarded.
Clow said they entered the contest with the hope of making the Estevan 2016 Saskatchewan Summer Games the best experience possible for the participating athletes. She said the prize will improve many things such as the opening ceremony or an upgraded venue, which ultimately makes the athlete’s impression of the Games more positive.
“Everything that we raise, it basically raises the level of the legacy that we could leave in the community and the event itself of the games and how it’s left in these kids’ minds, as to how awesome those games were,” she said. “Anything like this would really help us put something to the next level.”
