‘We can do this’: Small town gets a big upgrade with sport court

“Saskatchewan’s most active community” in 2021 is being rewarded for its efforts.

The town of Milestone is constructing a new community sport court that will be free for public use.

The court will be used for various sports, including basketball, tennis, pickleball and volleyball. It will also be used for street hockey and Crokicurl in the winter.

“June, of 2021, there was a Participaction challenge. We were actually named ‘most active community’ for Saskatchewan. So, we won for the province, and with that we got $15,000,” said Leanne Sjodin, a community member and one of the organizers of the project.

“That was our ‘OK, we can do this [moment].’ ”

The court, located near the schools and pool on the south-east side of town, will be a much-needed addition. Milestone lacks facilities for kids in the middle-years because the schools in the town are split.

“At the high school there’s a track and three swings, so there’s kind of nothing, but we have middle-year school kids there. We have grade five, six, seven, eight that also are in that building, so they really have nothing to do, so we decided [to] do a playground and a sport court,” said Sjodin.

Keeping the court free to use is important for the organizers.

“It’s going to be the only completely free thing you can do for activities that will focus on all ages. Right now, we have the swimming pool, which obviously you have to pay to go to the swimming pool,” said Sjodin.

“We have our rink which is very busy, usually November to March, but again you have to pay to use the rink,” said Sjodin.

Winning the challenge was the first breakthrough in a long fundraising journey. The planning began during the 2019-20 school year, but the fundraising efforts took time to come together.

“We formed our board with the six of us and started writing grants that whole January and February [of 2021], applying for grants, trying to raise money. We were unsuccessful, struck out everywhere with all the grants we wrote,” said Sjodin.

After the initial $15,000 was raised, the group stayed persistent and more opportunities arose.

The project eventually received $80,000 from the Government of Canada through the Canada Community Revitalization Fund. They also received $85,000 from Co-op through the Co-op Community Spaces program.

As soon as the money came in, the town got to work.

“We went from having almost nothing, to all of a sudden these grants and it was just kind of full steam ahead,” said Sjodin.

To save money, volunteers from the community helped install the concrete pad over Thanksgiving weekend.

“There was probably, on average, 12 to 15 people there at any one time working. From little kids tying rebar, who were like eight years old and we had some seniors in town that came and were helping and everyone was doing whatever they could to pitch in, so it was really great to see,” said Sjodin.

Using volunteers helps with costs, but the price has continued to rise with the cost of materials.

“Prices have skyrocketed on everything. All of our initial numbers that we started out with two years ago were doubled, a lot of them,” said Sjodin. “So it has come in a lot higher.”

The high costs are also due to the high-quality materials being used. Brent Marinos, who works for the company that installed the court surface, emphasized the longevity of the court.

“It’s good and strong, stands the test of time and it’s something you can flood and skate on in the winter,” said Marinos.

Organizers hope the court will be used by residents of all ages.

“There will be three pickle ball courts cross court, so we’re hoping we can get some people of all ages using it,” said Sjodin. The community is already planning various clinics and leagues for the spring.

An rough model of what the court will look like (photo from Co-op Community Sport Court Facebook)

Sjodin says that older residents will likely wait for warmer temperatures to make use of the court, but kids are already taking advantage.

“Our son is thirteen, he’s already [saying] ‘I’m going to shovel it off and bring hockey nets and we’re going to shoot pucks’,” said Sjodin. “The first day him and couple other kids were out there with flashlights shooting baskets until eight o’clock at night in the pitch black.”

The lights at the court will be installed in November, but the final touches will not be made until the spring.

“We’ve got just under $200 000 and it’ll leave us with about $15 000 next spring to do our landscaping, tables, trees, that kind of stuff, so we will be a little short,” said Sjodin. “We will need to try and do a little more public fundraising just to finish off and make it a wonderful space.”

Photo at top of page: Brent Marinos installing a section of the court

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