Safeway gives over $7,000 to skatepark

As the annual charity campaign spearheaded by Canada Safeway employees nears a close, the local store’s fundraising committee handed over a cheque for $7,322.46 to the Kiwanis skatepark committee on Friday.
“I thought it was great. I was thinking it might have been around $5,000,” said Kiwanis president Mark Jones.
This amount is the sum of all the proceeds from barbecues, grocery “top-up days,” and “dress down days.”
As well, about $2,700 was raised back in May with a raffle in which the winner took home $5,200 ($100 a week for a year) in Safeway gift certificates.
Jones also noted tickets still are on sale for a 2003 Pontiac Grand Am Coupe (retail value of $34,477), which will be raffled off Saturday, Sept. 27 at 3 p.m. at Safeway.
Tickets cost $20 each, and just 3,000 have been printed.
Jones is hopeful this final raffle will be very successful.
“Fort Frances is the kind of town that seems to put these things off until the last minute. We hope we sell out in the last week,” he remarked.
Meanwhile, the Kiwanis skatepark committee is poised to launch its brick campaign before the end of the year.
These bricks would be visible on a patio area at the proposed skatepark, which is earmarked to be built near the Memorial Sports Centre for a projected cost of about $300,000.
Unlike the “donor wall” the Riverside Foundation for Health Care uses in its fundraising, donors who buy multiple bricks could take up a block of space big enough to place a corporate or business logo on.
These would be in colour, if the donor so desires.
Jones said there’s been some very good interest in this fundraising venture by local businesses so far, and samples of these soon will appear at various locations around town to stir up more.
While work on the skatepark was expected to begin by this fall, Jones noted that various issues with the town, such as the placement of the skatepark, allowance for parking spaces and more, prevented any agreements from being formed between the two parties.
He’s hopeful more progress can be made on this side of things after the municipal election in November.