It seems like the third time is the charm when it comes to getting a youth sports-oriented charity off the ground in St. Albert.
The community now officially has its own chapter of KidSport, a Canada-wide organization that helps children to participate in sports programs even though their families are struggling financially. Beneficiaries can apply for grants of up to $500 to offset the cost of registration fees, and some chapters also assist with equipment costs, youth leadership opportunities, sport camps and travel.
Since it first made its entrance with 10 volunteer chapters in Alberta in 1995, KidSport now has almost 40 separate ones on its list. There is also one that covers communities not represented by their own chapter. All together, the chapters have paid out $8.6 million to support almost 50,000 children in more than 100 communities.
Up until now St. Albert has been the largest city without its own chapter. This meant that residents had to apply to the Alberta chapter for support. Over the last few years, there have been other attempts to get KidSport St. Albert off the ground, but none have succeeded.
But this time around a group of interested individuals have made it happen, said organizer Klayton Deputan. The St. Albert man said the committee has reached about 75 per cent of its fundraising goal of $30,000, which is the threshold at which it can start offering support to the public. He hopes to make that mark by Jan. 1.
“It’s great to hear but obviously, to begin funding, you need some sustainment as well,” he said. “Even though the funding stage starts at $30,000 we’re looking at trying to raise at least $50,000 in the first year here to then rely on our fund development program to maintain and sustain that so we can keep funding.”
Efforts to fill the coffers and build community awareness have included booths at the St. Albert Farmers’ Market and a Family Day street hockey tournament that the city will be hosting.
“What we’re also looking at doing is introducing ourselves to some of the service clubs in the city… we can certainly get some exposure that way as well,” Deputan said.
He said the city is standing behind the cause as well by making a $1,000 donation and allowing it to set up office space at the Akinsdale Arena.
Mayor Nolan Crouse said the current support is simply the city following through on its prior offer when other individuals first tried getting the local chapter off the ground three years ago.
“We had some opportunities on funding the organizations and help to get them up and running,” he stated, adding there was an amount of social conscience that also prompted the funding.
Now that KidSport is well on its way, there won’t be a need for further municipal funding.
“It was a good investment to get them going,” he said.
The operating benchmark of $30,000 was set based on discussions with the provincial organization as to what level of support the local committee should expect. Deputan said that this is based on what KidSport Alberta currently offers to St. Albert youths.
“We do hope, obviously, that by becoming a local chapter in St. Albert, we’ll have the ability to fund more kids that will know a lot more about the program.”
