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The Bell Community Sport Fund helped bring winning smiles to many local kids by funding organized sport groups last year.
Community sport has winning goals
When Canadian kids play sport, we all win. Sport has the power to build healthy bodies and strong communities on a foundation of fair play, cooperation and perseverance. The Bell Community Sport Fund, founded in January 2005, is already helping to keep more youth off the streets and on Canadian rinks and playing fields.
The $1 million fund, administered by The True Sport Foundation, benefits youth hockey and soccer programs across the country. During the past year, we received more than 1,400 applications for funding, and distributed grants of $25,000 and $5,000 to 152 communities in B.C., Alberta, Ontario and Québec.
One successful applicant was the Ottawa Community Immigrant Service Organization, which is developing a program with the Somali Youth Soccer Association. Together, they are putting the grant to good use, renting gyms for indoor soccer in winter, and soccer pitches during summer.
Meanwhile, in other parts of the country:
- Vancouver's Strathcona Community Association is partnering with a grade school in an economically depressed area to create year-round soccer programs so local youth can find focus, learn important values of teamwork and fair play - and have fun!
- In Vulcan, Alberta, the local recreation board is using its grant money from the Bell Community Sport Fund to complete a new soccer pitch and set up programs to train coaches and referees.
- In Killaloe, Ontario, a community group is installing a concrete floor in its hockey rink to extend the season and provide a venue for summer ball hockey. They will also use part of their grant money to build up a bank of hockey equipment that local youth can share.
- In Montréal, Québec, the Association des Braves operate hockey and soccer programs in a multi-cultural area for approximately 1,200 youth. They are using their grant to purchase new equipment, safety items, first aid kits and uniforms and are also providing volunteer training and waiving participation costs for economically challenged families.
