Dan Reid has been among the people fundraising and working to get a planned skate park off the ground in St. Paul for three years. But with two out of three grants he applied for this year rejected, he had nearly forgotten about the third one, when a lost letter found its way home to give the project another jolt of life.
Reid explained he had applied for funds through the federal government’s Canada 150 fund, and AVIVA Community Fund, but each time, the project got the short shrift. He’d filled out a third grant application to Alberta Blue Cross, but it had slipped his mind.
“I sent them all the information; I didn’t really have to do much. It was far less work than the other two . . . I’d really forgotten about it,” he said. Then his sister came by with some mail with the letter from Alberta Blue Cross sitting amidst the pile.
“It was addressed to the wrong address; it was in limbo somewhere,” he said, adding eventually the St. Paul post office found the letter and returned it to his family. When Reid read the contents, advising that Blue Cross had selected St. Paul’s skate park out of more than 85 applications, to receive $50,000, he was ecstatic.
“I screamed, ‘Yes, yes, yes!’” he recalled. “And it felt great, we needed that support to get us over the hump.”
With the Town and County of St. Paul each donating $30,000 to the skate park, as well as business and personal donations, Reid pegs the total raised funds at about $130,000.
Town council has also promised land to the project, which will be as large as an estimated 20,000 sq. ft., although a site has yet to be chosen.
“There’s a very important general, public meeting that needs to be had, where St. Paul residents get their say on where they’d like to see it built. We need to do it soon,” Reid said, explaining that Alberta Blue Cross is giving money under the condition that the skatepark needs to be built before the end of 2017. With the project estimated to take 10 weeks of construction from start to finish, he says work will need to begin before the end of next summer.
“We’re really close,” he said, adding he’d like to see another $70,000 raised to see the project come to fruition. He aims to talk to businesses and organizations once again in the new year, to see if he can find other premier sponsors to join the Town, the County and Alberta Blue Cross on signage to be erected once the skate park is built.
He expressed his gratitude to everyone that has helped thus far, saying, “I’m very proud of everyone’s excitement around it, and we want to use that momentum from this latest generous donation from Blue Cross.”
For Reid, the biggest impetus – and he feels, the reason the project received the Blue Cross grant – is because it is focused on promoting mental wellness, particularly for youth.
“There’s a lot of problems they have at that age,” he said. “At that age, it’s so important to mold (them) and keep them engaged in something constructive . . . This gives them a chance to do their own thing and grow.”
Dates for the public meeting have yet to be set, but in the meantime, Reid invites anyone interested in joining the skate park committee to call him at 780-645-1646 or through email at [email protected] to help get the skate park built.
