Over $200,000 in grants has been allocated to 15 local agencies through Chestermere City Council’s Community Grant Funding Program.
“The program is used to enhance amenities in sports and recreation, arts, culture, and history,” said Mayor Marshall Chalmers.
The agencies awarded include, the Calgary Yacht Club, Camp Chestermere Chamber of Commerce, Chestermere Community Police Liaison Link, Chestermere Curling Association, Chestermere Minor Hockey Association, CRCA, Chestermere Show and Shine, Chestermere Whitecappers Association, Crushers Baseball, Epic Hoops Basketball Academy, Home Hemodialysis Application, Indus Ringette Association, Rocky View Chestermere Agricultural Society, and Western Canada Pond Hockey.
The Community Grant Funding Program was created in 2018, to support community organizations that were facilitating local activities, and projects that promoted the overall social well-being for Chestermere.
“The key was to ensure it was for Chestermere residents, to enhance Chestermere as a whole as a community and to really ensure that we were facilitating local activities and enhancing amenities that we already have,” said Office Coordinator of Community Services Marla Polachek.
Agencies were required to meet specific criteria to be eligible for the Community Grant Funding Program such as their project, program, or service primarily serving Chestermere residents.
“Then of course they need to demonstrate a need and have a really great plan for how they are going to be allocating any funding that they would receive,” Polachek said.
“It couldn’t be special interest programs. They needed to be able to impact a large capacity of residents, and they had to ensure that there was public access to any of the programs that were awarded,” she added.
Since the funding has been distributed, agencies have come forward to express their gratitude and thankfulness to the city for investing in their project, program, or service.
“We’ve had a lot of groups that have come forward with a general thank-you to the city for being willing to invest in their programs,” Polachek said.
“We’re looking forward to seeing the different impacts they make as their programs continue to unfold throughout the year,” she added.
Currently, there is approximately $62,000 still available for funding, and a second call for applications will come out later in the fall.
For additional information on the Community Grant Funding Program, or guidelines, please visit the City of Chestermere website at https://chestermere.ca/communitygrants.
