THUNDER BAY – One of the goals for the Rainy Lake Nordic Ski Club is to be a place that can be used year-round.
“We want to be available for all four seasons,” said Elaine Fischer, who is the events coordinator at the Rainy Lake Nordic Ski Club.
“This year has been pretty unique because we hardly had any snow, but we have people using our trails for hiking and biking. When you combine that with our skiing and snowshoeing activities, it gets pretty busy.”
The club, which is located east of Fort Frances, got a boost in their efforts on June 18 as they received $5,500 from the Tbaytel for Good Community Fund.
The funds will be used to address maintenance needs on their ski chalet – which needs a broken window replaced and degrading siding updated – the purchase of new equipment for their Learn to Ski Jack Rabbit program, the installation of solar lighting in their garage and updated map and trail signage.
“This is huge for us, especially as a small club in a small community,” Fischer said.
“The ski chalet is really our gathering place, so to have the funding that we need to make those much-needed repairs is awesome
“We want to thank everyone for this grant. It’s nice to see the support for things like this.”
The Dryden Fire Service also received a grant of $4,099 that will be used for its 122 campaign, which provides free installation of fire alarms to local residents as they aim to decrease the number of fire-related fatalities.
The campaign’s name comes from the fact that 122 people lost their lives in fire-related incidents in Ontario last year.
“We quite often find when we go door-to-door that there are a lot of homes that are not compliant or they have alarms that just don’t work anymore,” Deputy Chief Ryan Robertson said.
“With this program, this is going to allow us to be able to not only go and help test these alarms, but we’re also going to be able to put these alarms up at no cost for the people that don’t have the alarms or the means to put these alarms up themselves.”
The other three recipients came from the Thunder Bay district.
Pope John Paul II Senior Elementary School received funding for their Grade 7 Grand-friend program that will aid in transportation for the students from the school to visit seniors at Pioneer Ridge throughout the school year.
Whitefish Valley Public School in Kakabeka Falls received a grant for its kindergarten play yard project, while the Conmee Emergency Service Department has received assistance to help with the purchase of the Holmatro Pentheon PCT 60 Combi tool, which will be used to assist people in road accidents.
