Elliot Lake Rotary announced a donation to the Jamie and Jo-Ann Armstrong Centennial Arena Repair Fundraising Challenge yesterday afternoon.
The donation was a $5,000 cheque now and an additional $5,000 to come from the proceeds of Rotary’s 20th Annual Red Briffett Memorial Golf Tournament.
The tourney will be held this September at Stone Ridge.
Club President Shawn Heard also took the opportunity to issue a $5,000 challenge to other local charities and non-profits.
Mr. Heard’s speech:
Good afternoon and thank you for coming out. For those who may not know me, my name is Shawn Heard, and I have the distinct honour of being the President of the Rotary Club of Elliot Lake. As you can see, some of our members were able to join us today to help share some special news.
The Rotary Club of Elliot Lake and the Centennial Arena have something in common, as it was 1967 that the Rotary Club of Elliot first received its charter and began its history in Elliot Lake.
Since that time, Elliot Lake has supported Rotary and Rotary has supported Elliot Lake. We are so appreciative that whenever our local Club has a fundraiser, or a special dinner, or are just performing community service, we can always count on the people of Elliot Lake to support our efforts.
It allows Rotary to give back to the community. For the past few months, Elliot Lake Minor Hockey, the Elliot Lake Figure Skating Club, ELNOS and Rotary have been working on developing an arena fundraising campaign to help the City of Elliot Lake re-open our local arena in a safe and speedy manner.
So, I am very pleased to announce today that the Rotary Club of Elliot Lake is announcing our support to the local non-profits spearheading the arena fundraising efforts. We are making not one, but two commitments to the campaign.
1. In the spirit of the Jamie and Jo-Ann Armstrong’s generous challenge, the Rotary Club of Elliot Lake would like to issue a challenge to all of our local charities and non-profits groups to match our immediate donation of $5,000 to the Centennial Arena Fundraising Committee. Our local groups always come through, and I am sure this Challenge will once again be met in the spirit of which it is intended.
2. In addition to this donation, the Rotary Club of Elliot Lake would like to announce a further donation of a second $5,000 to come from the proceeds of Rotary’s 20th Annual Red Briffett Memorial Golf Tournament, to be held this September at Stone Ridge.
So, in summary, we are issuing a $5,000 challenge to the charities and non-profits and committing a further $5,000, bringing Rotary’s total commitment to the Centennial Arena Fundraising Campaign to $10,000.
Again, we are very pleased to continue the long tradition of the Rotary Club’s working with local groups to improve our community. It is time to get our kids off the highways and back in our hometown arena!