The last 6 weeks have been chaotic. And I mean chaotic in the best of ways - filled with good things, great people and new ideas.
The newest of new ideas is the creation of a recreation association in our community. I'm volunteering my time with a group of other health and wellness oriented people to create The Hub, a recreation association that will provide access to fitness, activities and recreation for all members of our community and to those of surrounding communities.
The history goes a little something like this - formerly a provincial hospital, a massive 800,000 square foot facility on 350 acres is closed, left vacant in 2008. Said facility has a pool, gymnasium, auditorium, classrooms - but is closed, no longer available for use and has a massive for sale sign on the front lawn. Prospects are grim; not only has this facility closed, so have a couple of others, resulting in hundreds of job losses in a town of 9,000. Not good (and did I mention I had just moved here!?)
Fast forward to 2011. In general, the town's prospects are looking better - slowly (we are the turtle, not the hare). While searching the world for someone to buy up this huge facility, the town inadvertently misses a local solution. The sale of the facility is announced and as it turns out, a local family in the construction business has purchased it - welcome now to The Gallipeau Centre! The idea is to build a community within a community - residential dwellings, commercial ventures, medical facilities and the list goes on.
Fast forward again to 2012, when a local businesswoman (and my mentor) Darlene Maclachlan brings a bunch of us together to talk about the possibilities. It wasn't long before we had a laundry list of ideas, volunteers, people to talk to, presentations to do and most importantly - plans to make!
We've come a long way in a couple of months and I'm proud to be able to say I get to work alongside some amazing people (including my Dad!) to figure out how to make this a reality. It's a little bit daunting some days, but oh so rewarding! The possibilities are endless and the benefits immeasurable, which is why I continue to believe this will become a reality.
If you're reading this and have the opportunity, check out our idea here - it's a competition that provides funding to community oriented ideas. For us, this will be seed money to get the pool fixed and re-opened. If you have a moment and can sign up and vote for us, that would be awesome! More than anything, we're working to create awareness of the benefits this will provide to all members of our community and if you can help us with that, we'd be oh so grateful.
cheers,
A
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