Growing into a community cornerstone

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/04/2019 (2542 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hundreds of hours of volunteer time went into the effort to build a new community centre in La Salle, and when the doors were officially opened in February 2014, the entire community celebrated.

Since that time, the board of the centre (located at 80 PR 247 E), which was recently renamed the Caisse Community Centre due to a sponsorship deal, has looked for programs and services that meet local needs.

The centre contains a fitness centre, commercial kitchen, large gymnasium and smaller multi-purpose rooms. There is an outdoor rink and sports fields.

Board president David Brown said the 16-member volunteer board also oversees the adjacent building, part of which formerly served as the community centre and now houses the La Salle Curling Club and Kidz Daycare Centre, both of which are operated by their own boards.

“Both the curling club and the day care are tenants and have long-term lease agreements with the Caisse Community Centre board of directors,” Brown said. The curling club has a representative on the centre’s board.

The centre is home to a before-and after-school program for approximately 85 children. Spring break and summer camps are also offered.

Facility manager Dee Romijn said the summer camp typically has between 15 and 35 campers with the participant number and camp themes varying from week to week.

“Why go to Mini-U (University of

Manitoba’s summer youth camp) when you have the same thing here?” she said

Extra staff is hired for the summer through the provincial government’s Green Team fund.
“The Caisse Community Centre is funded solely based on revenues from our day-to-day operations (i.e. facility rentals and programming). Other funding from fundraising is allocated to capital improvements,” Brown said.

“Macdonald-Headingley Recreation District also provides opportunities for grant funding for capital improvements. Contrary to common belief, the community centre receives no funding or grant money from any level of government for operations,” Brown said.

Chase the Ace has proved to be a popular fundraiser, with the centre keeping half the money raised.
Brown said the board faces the challenge of getting volunteers to help with community events, such as the annual breakfast with Santa, fall supper,  a School’s Out dance at the end of June, and a fall festival. The outdoor rink is also maintained by volunteers.

“As our community continues to grow it becomes more difficult to engage volunteers, especially in a bedroom community such as La Salle. This is not a unique challenge to La Salle, however, it is a common theme that volunteer effort is becoming more difficult to find,” Brown said.

As residential development continues in La Salle, Brown is hopeful that some of the community’s new residents will decide to lend a hand for community activities.

“The Caisse Community Centre embraces the challenge of continuing to provide programming and activities for the growing community,” he said.

“After all, the growing community is one of the reasons that we opened our new facility in 2014. We always enjoy seeing new faces in the building or at the various community events such as breakfast with Santa and the fall festival. The developers in town have been great supporters of the community centre.”

For more information on Caisse Community Centre, see http://caissecc.com