FORT FRANCES—KidSport is in Fort Frances and making its role known after a centre-ice ceremony during Saturday night’s Fort Frances Jr. Sabres game to formally open the local chapter of the government-sponsored program.
“It was a great opportunity to launch our chapter with the Sabres’ game because we definitely had over 300 people at the game,” said Elaine Fischer, secretary of the KidSport Fort Frances chapter.
“Not a whole lot of our community knows about KidSport yet,” she added.
The launch—more than a year in the making—saw the chapter’s official start to its mandate to promote sport participation among youths and drum up funds, equipment, and other necessities for local children who otherwise would be unable to afford organized sports.
The ceremony, held during the first intermission of the game between the Sabres and visiting Schreiber Diesels, saw a $3,000 cheque awarded by Lyle Abbott, provincial manager of KidSport Ontario.
Also donated to the Fort Frances chapter from the provincial body was a dearth of signage and other promotional materials, on top of six sets of hockey equipment courtesy of Nike Bauer—all of which already have homes.
Fischer said while the local chapter’s committee has been working towards a launch for a year, and started to accept applications for young athletes in need in August, most of the response Saturday night was from people who hadn’t heard of the program before.
Still, the initial response has been very positive.
“I’m happy about the fact that people are interested in the program, people really see the value in a program like this,” said Fischer. “And the nice thing about KidSport is any of the money raised or donated stays local.”
All funds generated locally goes directly to the chapter, and funds also can be pledged on the KidSport Ontario website to specific chapters.
Fischer added all funds currently are going directly to youths, with none of the money having yet gone to administration costs.
Saturday also saw the launch of a KidSport chapter in Rainy River seven hours before Fort Frances, complete with a ‘FunZone’ event, which saw youths connect with local teams and organizations and try out new sports and activities hands-on.
Fort Frances’ chapter also was to launch with a ‘FunZone,’ but Fischer said that will be postponed to co-incide with the spring/summer sports seasons.
The current idea is to hold the event in conjunction with the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship in July, but Fischer insisted that is just “an idea at this point.”
“We haven’t had any discussions with the local bass committee,” she said.
Fischer said the initial response was positive, and much of the talk from the community focused on the chance of KidSport running an equipment swap to exchange “hand-me-down equipment, gently-used equipment” throughout Fort Frances.
“A very common comment on Saturday night was, ‘I have four pairs of skates in my garage, but I don’t know what to do with them,’” she said, but then added, “We definitely need to grow a little bit to take on a project of that magnitude.”
Abbott had glowing praise for both launches, saying that “now we have two sort of footprints in Northwestern Ontario where we can continually build on.”
He said the Rainy River ‘FunZone’ was a great example for Fort Frances’ event planned for July, and Saturday was a banner day for KidSport as it was the first time two chapters were launched in one day, and the first provincial chapter west of Hornepayne. “This truly makes us a provincial program because we are now in every corner of the province,” he said.
“We’re very, very happy that not only are we in these communities, but we are also able to help children all throughout the province,” he said, adding he plans to be back in the region in mid-April to launch chapters in Atikokan, Emo, Big Grassy and Vermillion Bay.
Both Fischer and chapter committee member Miranda Sigurdson can be contacted at the Northwestern Health Unit (274-9827) for more information about KidSport.
Donations also can be made at KidSport Ontario’s website at www.kidsport.on.ca
KidSport is a children’s charitable organization, started in British Columbia in 1993 and currently operating in every province and one territory in Canada.
As of the opening of these two district chapters, KidSport will operate 175 nationwide.
(Fort Frances Times)
Featured
- #Ukraine
- #findajobWhether you are unemployed, underemployed, a student, an employer or an employee! NCDS‘ is here to help YOU! (807) 274-2282 | www.ncds4jobs.ca | 300 Scott St. Fort Frances This Employment Ontario Service is funded in part by the Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario
- #COVID-19
- #Get-The-Times!
- #Graduation2024
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
