Okotoks association kicks up fieldhouse fundraising
Soccer: OMSA gives $50,000 to MD of Foothills and Town
An Okotoks minor sports association kicked off the fundraising campaign for the indoor fieldhouse by making a major financial contribution to the facility’s construction.
The Okotoks Minor Soccer Association (OMSA) presented Okotoks Mayor Bill Robertson and MD of Foothills Reeve Larry Spilak with $50,000 to go towards the construction of the fieldhouse, a joint MD and Town venture, at the OMSA’s fourth annual silent auction on Feb. 11 at the Okotoks Boston Pizza.
Jim Findlater, chair of the fundraising committee for the OMSA, said he’s optimistic the fundraising ball will continue to roll after the kick-off event.
“It’s a start that we felt that we’d get the ball rolling and it’s a first step and in the future hopefully we’ll have quite a bit more,” Findlater said.
The OMSA is one of 13 user groups, including Okotoks Minor Lacrosse and the Okotoks Tennis Club, asked by the Town of Okotoks and the MD of Foothills to raise at least $1 million to go towards fixtures, furnishings and equipment for the $20 million facility.
Findlater said the MD and Town were appreciative of the support they’ve received from the fundraising committee.
“It really gets the enthusiasm going seeing that it’s not just talk, a lot of people can say ‘We’ll get a lot of money’, but we wanted to show them that we’re really, really serious in trying to help raise the $1 million the user groups have to get together,” Findlater said.
“We’re willing to do and help as much as we can, but it takes the other user groups too, so hopefully we can pull them together now that we have the land.”
Spilak expressed appreciation for the funds raised.
“I see the enthusiasm in the room, it’s exciting and I look forward to the next year and many fundraisers to come,” said Spilak in a speech at the fundraising dinner. “We all know that recreation is a key component to a healthy and wonderful community and people outside of our region understand that and when they see it they get excited and want to be a part of it as well.”
Robertson echoed the enthusiasm.
“Okotoks town council is just over the moon in getting this facility,” Robertson said. “We’ll be starting construction hopefully in May and then completing it as Jim said to have the first game in there in September of 2013 and perhaps earlier.”
Even before the fieldhouse site was finalized the OMSA was raising funds through community events such as a pair of bottle drives and a casino night in 2010 to make the facility a more realistic possibility.
“All of our fundraising over the past five years was always getting ready for that day when the fieldhouse was going to be here and it was always our intent one way or another whether we had to built it ourselves,” Findlater said.
The fundraising dinner on Feb. 11 included a silent auction featuring items gathered from OMSA teams as well as a live auction led by hall-of-fame athletic trainer and Okotoks legend Jim “Bearcat” Murray.
Findlater said the OMSA has averaged close to $10,000 worth of funds raised from the first three silent auctions its held and expects a similar figure from the 2012 event.
There’s still work to be done to financially support the construction of the facility and OMSA has some fundraising dates scheduled for the summer. Findlater said he’s finalized another casino night for Aug. 26-27 and held talks with the Town and the MD to put together a fundraising-based sporting event in the summer.
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