Thanks to the excellent partnership between the town and the school district, three of the area schools will be receiving upgrades that will be a benefit the whole community.
Each year the communities can apply for School Community Connections grants, available from the Union of B.C. Municipalities, generally through school districts, Assistant Superintendent Chris van der Mark explains. Proposals for the Bulkley Valley include a gymnasium modification at Smithers Secondary School, adjustable basketball hoops for the Steve Nash league at Walnut Park and/or Smithers Secondary, as well as a weight room at Houston Secondary School.
“It’s based on community partnerships, so that’s how these came about,” van der Mark said.
On the Smithers side, the district was approached by the Town of Smithers’ Andrew Hillaby, who wanted to kick around some ideas, van der Mark said, on what they could apply for that would have the biggest value to the community as a whole.
The grants typically aren’t for a large amount of money, with each district limited to the amount they can apply for, so the conversation began on what could be done with the money.
An ongoing challenge for recreation groups at SSS has been their storage area just off the gym, van der Mark said, so for $7,000 they will be investing the funds into creating a more efficient system that won’t just benefit gym students at SSS.
“They have a wonderfully large storage room off the gym that the district built years ago … but there’s not really storage in there to separate things,” van der Mark said.
Where this becomes a problem is a large variety of community groups shares the gym, and its storage space, so sometimes it can be quite the juggling act to go into the area and take out what you need. User groups of the gym include morning fitness classes, indoor soccer leagues, and other sports groups who use the space to practice.
“It’s a real busy gym,” van der Mark said. “That’s what you want, you want people being in there, being active.”
One way to get people out and being active is partly through fostering a love of sports when they’re little, which is where the adjustable hoops come in. The $10,000 apparatus is designed in a way to make it easier for those of younger ages, and therefore shorter heights, to really perfect their basketball skills, van der Mark said.
Thinking specifically of the Steve Nash League, it’s one that’s been active in the community for a couple of years now, van der Mark says, and attracts a wide range of kids.
“When they run these leagues, one of the things they run into is often the hoops are 10 feet high, and when you’re dealing with kids who are in grade 3, 4, 5, it’s hard to get to that target,” van der Mark said. “This way, if you have little kids they’ll learn the correct technique because they’re not trying to throw it like a cannonball.”
Discussion is still ongoing with maintenance crews to see whether or not the hoops would be compatible with the Walnut Park gym, which would be optimal van der Mark said, due to the gymnasium’s size and the age group they deal with. Walnut Park and SSS are the only two SD54-owned gyms that are full size, so if Walnut Park turns out to be incompatible with the new equipment, it would be installed at SSS, he added.
“It depends to the extent we can modify existing structure,” van der Mark said.
Houston Secondary will be updating its gym to incorporate a weight lift room. Mandated by the physical education requirements set by the province, now the students won’t have to utilize the Houston Leisure Facility’s facilities.
“It’s pretty exciting,” van der Mark said. “We’re talking about a little amount [of money] but by working together, what can we do that benefits a bunch of different folks. So that’s pretty cool.”