Rookie rec board volunteer will have something to prove
By Jim Mosher
Sunday October 03, 2004
All eyes will be on Pimentel as he tries to win plan to expand services at Winnipeg Beach Municipal Recreation Centre.
Interlake Spectator — WINNIPEG BEACH -- Tony Pimentel wants to turn almost 25 years of local history on its head. He says the board of town’s recreation centre -- built in 1979 at a cost of about $400,000 -- needs to “think outside of the box”, and provide expanded programs to the area it serves.
The rec centre is currently home to summer bingos, the odd public concert or fundraiser. But it’s claim to fame is its winter hockey and figure skating programs.
Not good enough, says Pimentel.
The two winter programs attracted 78 area youth last year, including 42 registered in figure skating and 36 in hockey.
Asks Pimentel: What about the other kids, the ones who don’t skate, who don’t like hockey or those whose parents cannot afford to pay for the skates, the pads, the frequent trips to distant tournaments and games?
Pimentel told the rec centre’s annual general meeting Sept. 22 that he could reel off the names of 30 kids who have nothing to do, nowhere to go for structured programming in the winter. He didn’t offer any immediate solutions, but insisted that something should be done.
As the rec board’s newest member -- it’s only new member, actually; the returning veterans are Arnold Eyford, Larry Moore, Lynne Pawluk and Michelle Thompson, along with town council appointee Sonya Dodd -- Pimentel will certainly be asked where he wants to take the centre.
Showboat or visionary?
People who have been slogging away as volunteers at the rec centre -- both as board members and the deck hands, staffing the canteen, moving chairs and the like -- publicly welcome Pimentel. They might be expected to say that he’s a showboat; that he doesn’t understand the challenges.
But Pawluk, who joined the rec board in 1996, says “there’s always room for fresh ideas.”
Still, she cautions that Pimentel’s enthusiasm may be diminished as the reality of the rec centre’s challenges sinks in. She says the board cannot look at ‘expanding’ its programs until it reins in a debt now sitting at just under $90,000.
“We don’t have the funding to offer new programs,” Pawluk said. “As a board, we have to worry about getting ourselves out of debt. It’s always different when you’re on the inside looking out. There are certain things that must be paid. It’s not as easy as some people make it sound.”
Pawluk agreed, though, that the challenge of the new board is to broaden its scope.
“We may have to widen the scope of what we do, the programs we offer ... if we want to continue to operate as a volunteer board,” Pawluk acknowledged. “I’m very optimistic we can continue. As I said to Tony at the general meeting, ‘Come on board; let’s sit down and talk.’ There’s always room for fresh ideas.”
The new board met last Wednesday. It had a few things to celebrate. It had survived an annual general meeting at which there wasn’t even a quorum. And it had presented a concert that generated $2,300 net to the rec centre. The Sisters of the Holy Rock concert Sept. 25 at the rec centre attracted 359 paying customers.
The accumulated deficit of the Winnipeg Beach Municipal Recreation Centre stood at $87,712.47 as at Sept. 22.
It had neared $100,000 last year. But, despite being on the fiscal mat, the tireless members of the rec board managed to raise $40,000 from a variety of events in 2003. There’ve been weekly meat draws at the Hwy. 9 Roadhouse; raffles and other fundraisers As well, the board has hosted boxing and wrestling matches; an Abba tribute concert, jointly organized with the town; it’s hosted a regional figure skating tournament; and, most recently, that performance by the wildly popular Winnipeg group Sisters of the Holy Rock.
There’s much work ahead.
Pawluk welcomes anyone with drive and a strong sense of community to join the board. There are currently four vacancies on the nine-member board.
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