Slow and steady approach working for Chalmers

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This article was published 23/04/2019 (2683 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Located in the heart of Elmwood, Chalmers Community Centre is quietly but consistently working to improve the community.

“We just want to see this place do good,” said general manager Val Rusnak. “We don’t have big indoor rinks or anything like that, but we’re making a go of it.”

Chalmers Community Centre is one of five community centres city-wide that are run without a volunteer board by the General Council of Winnipeg Community Centres. Rusnak has run the centre at 480 Chalmers Avenue with building and grounds manager Greg Stojanowski. A full-time janitor is also on staff, along with six part-time employees.

“If I lost them, I don’t know what I’d do,” Rusnak said. “Good people are hard to replace, especially on a part-time basis. It’s very, very hard to find volunteers.”

Chalmers Community Centre runs a popular bingo twice a week, on Monday and Friday nights.

“We draw huge crowds because we have big pots, and the canteen does quite well because we have a full menu,” Rusnak, who was bingo convenor with the club when Chalmers was still run by a volunteer board.

“We have a small canteen operational for those using the rinks, the hockey teams and that.”

Good people are hard to replace. It’s very, very hard to find volunteers.

Chalmers is home to two outdoor hockey rinks, soccer pitches, and baseball diamonds for hardball and softball in the summer. They enjoy a unique partnership with the Elmwood Giants Baseball Club, whose home diamond is Koskie Field.

“We have a joint venture with the Elmwood Giants to help keep the kids off the streets in the summertime,” Rusnak explained.

The learn to play baseball program, which provides equipment and field time to neighbourhood kids at little to no cost, has proven popular over the past two seasons. Hall rentals play a big part in keeping the doors open at Chalmers. Yoga, zumba, and martial arts are regulars.

“Our rentals are phenomenal,” Rusnak said. “We get rentals from across the city coming in, and repeaters, which is good for us. We have a fantastic commercial kitchen.”

With most hall rentals taking place evenings and weekends, the gym in Chalmers is used throughout the week by a number of community groups.

Over the past three years, Chalmers has benefited from a number of GCWCC renovation grants, upgrading their interior lighting and installing new windows. 

“The building is old,” Stojanowski said. “We try to apply to all the grants we can. It’s coming.”

The club also recently received a top-to-bottom paint job, and new floors are in the works.

“It will look great,” Rusnak said. “I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

Sheldon Birnie
Managing editor

Sheldon Birnie is the managing editor of the Free Press Community Review. Email him at sheldon.birnie@freepress.mb.ca or call him at 204-697-7112

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