Clint Knutson and Kathy Evans of Reaching Youth Serving Community accept a community donation from Lake Country Co-op’s Roy Sinden. (Submitted/Lake Country Co-op)

By Michael Joel-Hansen

Community Service

Birch Hills group gets big donation

Feb 23, 2019 | 9:00 AM

A Birch Hills community group is going to be able to do some important work thanks to a donation from Lake Country Co-op.

The Reaching Youth Serving Community group (RYSC) won $25,000 for the town of Birch Hills through the Co-op’s Fuel Up My Town social media contest. RYSC is a non-profit group that helps show youth how to be involved in their community. The organization plans to use the funds to expand the skate park and community gardens built a few years ago by adding outdoor washrooms and a camping gazebo.

Kathy Evans, a youth worker with RYSC, said the donation will go a long way in the community park development.

“This is huge. We’ve had so many starts, you know as prices go up it seems like we get close to the goal of doing something, then the price of materials have gone up,” she said.

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The community park, which includes a skate park, is located outside of town. Evans said the upgrades will be especially helpful to the young families who use it on a regular basis.

“A lot of times there will be families up there and one of the little ones will have to use the washroom and it means going downtown to find a bathroom,” she said.

The addition of a gazebo means people attending gatherings in the park won’t have to set up their chairs in a gravel parking lot.

In order to win the contest, Western Canadians could share the hashtag #FuelUpMyTown on social media to vote for their community to be placed on the 2019 Fuel Up to Win game card. Evans said residents, families and friends really got behind the contest to give Birch Hills the most mentions for the win.

“I think a lot of it was networking with family and friends and just drawing on the grassroots to do our little town a solid,” said Evans. “Just because we’re small doesn’t mean we can’t accomplish this stuff.”

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MichaelJoel.Hansen@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @mjhskcdn