Essex high school building grandstand with $100,000 prize
A school and community gathering spot at the centre of the county will soon again have a permanent grandstand to pack in the crowds after Essex District High School nabbed one of only three $100,000 Aviva Community Fund awards.
“We’re having a great day,” school principal Mike Hawkins said Tuesday after students and staff were informed of their big win. The school lost its previous wooden grandstand about three years ago when it was deemed too hazardous to use and too costly to repair. School fundraisers held since then, including one event that saw teachers kissing cows, generated about $35,000, but that total was far short of the $100,000plus cost for replacement bleachers.
New grandstand bleachers, the school told the Aviva judges, would have “a tremendous impact on school spirit, and within the community. Essex is a small town in the hub of Essex County, and our sports complex is the heart. We are known for spirited fans, and as a positive and active community.” Led by teacher Lindsay Drozdz and her Grade 12 leadership class, the school’s 730 students were enlisted in the effort to drum up votes. Only the Top 10 community investment proposals from across Canada (based on online voting) would make it to the final round for judging, and only three would win the top prize.
“We had fantastic participation by our students and staff,” said Hawkins.
Feeder schools were drafted to help and Hawkins said there was “tremendous support” from the Essex Business Improvement Association and even the Greater Essex County District School Board was drawn in to the vote. Because of the Aviva grant and the previous funds raised, Hawkins said the new grandstand (all-aluminum bleacher seating atop a concrete foundation) will have extras, including accessibility ramps and maybe even a new announcer’s booth. And the current Grade 12s who did a lot of the get-out-the-vote footwork will be able to cash in on that effort. Hawkins said the plan is to have the new grandstand up and functioning by May in time for the track and field and soccer seasons.
There is currently a smaller set of temporary bleachers on loan from the town, but the new grandstand is expected to accommodate 500 people. The judges at Aviva were told Essex District High School hosts a number of district events and that generations of locals gather to watch and cheer. “Essex is a very tight-knit town,” said Hawkins. “Former grads ... people in their 60s and 70s, visit us to see what’s new.”
The high school’s submission fit in perfectly with this year’s Aviva Community Fund theme of “creating change in a community by bringing people together.” The other two big winners, in British Columbia and New Brunswick, received grants for an accessible playground and a community centre.
Aviva Insurance and its community fund program has been good to the town’s schools.
Essex Public School received $100,000 in 2011 for an accessible playground. Tecumseh Vista Academy was another public school board big winner locally, receiving $100,000 in 2016 for an environmentally friendly community walkway.