Rotary comes through for Big Brothers Big Sisters
AGENCY AWARDED $100,000 PROJECT GRANT THROUGH ROTARY’S 100TH ANNIVERSARY LEGACY PROJECT
It’s a gift for Lethbridge children, as Rotary celebrates 100 years of service in the city. The Big Brothers Big Sisters organization has been named winner of a $100,000 project grant, presented Monday by the Rotary Club of Lethbridge. Its proposal was selected from among 17 submitted for the one-time 100th Anniversary Legacy Project.
Club members made the final selection after hearing how the funds will enable expansion of the organization’s facilities and programs.
“It’s the biggest donation we’ve ever received,” said Jen Visser, the organization’s executive director. “That amount of money is enormous.”
The youth organization has already raised $200,000 for the upgrades, she said, and this grant will allow the work to proceed.
“We just didn’t have quite enough,” so the project remained uncertain. Now it will allow an addition at the rear of the organization’s 6 Avenue S. home, along with more interview and meeting space for the agency’s clients and volunteers — and more office space for its staff..
Visser said a rear addition to the brick structure, built in 1909 for Major William Burdett, will provide much-needed space while preserving the character of the historic building. She noted part of the project will restore an earlier addition, since removed.
Lethbridge architect Beth Songer is working with the Big Brothers Big Sisters board to bring the project to the tender-calling stage, Visser said. It’s now hoped work will begin next spring.
Visser said the agency, serving Lethbridge and area for 45 years, moved into the high-visibility home in the 1990s — about the time it won recognition as a heritage structure. Since then its programs have expanded year by year.
“We’ve grown 50 per cent in the last few years,” she said.
“We now have more than 500 children” participating in a range of programs. “And we have 100 on the waiting list.”
Among other improvements, Visser said, the upgrade will provide more meeting rooms, where staff members can interview prospective volunteers.
While aware of the need for more space, she said the board had no desire to leave the heritage building. Or to modernize its rooms.
“We want the place to feel like home,” as it has for more than 20 years.
Courtney Atkinson, chair of the Rotary legacy project’s committee, said there was strong support for the Big Brothers Big Sisters submission when club members voted earlier this month. Of the 17 proposals submitted, he said, club members were most excited about those that would help young people.
Each of the three finalists presented a youth project proposal, he said, and a spokesperson for each made a final presentation to Rotary members before the vote was held two weeks ago.
They decided the Big Brothers Big Sisters project was the most closely aligned with their desire to support an ongoing legacy project, he said.
Now it’s on to the next Rotary project, Atkinson added. The gala “Black and Gold” fundraiser will be held Saturday, with tickets available on eventbrite.ca
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