The Rossland Arena Society’s fall fundraising campaign for a new ice chiller for the facility is well underway.
In June, the society identified and received support from city council to develop a grant application for an upgrade to the arena ice chiller. With this approval in place, the society collaborated with the Rossland Curling Club and worked together as co-applicants to apply for a 2019 BC Gaming capital projects grant.
The arena society has committed a minimum of $35,000 towards the matching funds required by the grant guidelines.
“We have been looking for a grant to help improve the arena without increasing the financial contribution from taxpayers,” says Darin Recchi, a director of the Rossland Arena Society. “This is a good project that is a win-win for the ice users and the residents of Rossland.”
The application was a community effort, and was submitted with letters of support from the Rossland Figure Skating Club, the Rossland Senior Warriors, the Boxing Day Classic, the Trail Smoke Eaters, Greater Trail Minor Hockey Association, the Smokettes, Trail and District Chamber of Commerce, Rossland Summit School and local adult teams.
“Joanne Drystek and Shane Preedy, Rossland Curling Club were instrumental in pulling together the grant application,” said Ona Stanton, president of the Rossland Arena Society. “Darin Albo of the city’s public works department was a huge help providing the project details and cost information required.”
She also thanked local politicians for letters of support.
Although the outcome of the grant application will not be known until October, the Rossland Arena Society is moving forward with fundraising efforts. Since August, the society has been managing the bottle drop-off at Rossland Summit School with all proceeds benefiting the Rossland arena.
The arena society is also working with Redstone as the 2019 community partner of the Fly Wide Open golf tournament taking place on Sept. 14.
The society is looking for community partners interested in sponsoring a hole or donating raffle prizes. To find out more and to register go to redstoneresort.com/fly-wide-open. Anyone wanting to help with the bottle drop off or Fly Wide Open should contact rosslandarena@gmail.com or message them on Facebook (Friends of the Rossland Arena).
The Rossland Arena Society was formed in 2018 by a group of ice users and stakeholders. The purpose of the society is to deliver community benefits by improving the viability of the Rossland arena through advocacy, programming, increased usage, fundraising, and facility management as required.
