You're invited to the official Ground Breaking ceremony for the second rink at Leaside Gardens beginning at 11 a.m. on Saturday June 16th in the arena parking lot, to be followed by a community barbecue. Everyone is invited to come out and be part of this exciting day for Leaside and our surrounding neighbourhoods. Please take a moment to check out our:
18 January 2012 Last night Toronto City Council approved the Leaside Arena Expansion Project as part of the 2012 city budget. The $12.5 million project includes a $7.5 million loan from the city and a $1.5 million loan from the province against future operating revenues, $1 million from the city in accelerated capital improvements, and $2.5 million raised by the local community. As you know we undertook to have met this local fundraising target by the time city council voted on the budget. And I am pleased to say that we succeeded! Yesterday Expansion Committee Chair Paul Mercer and Fundraising Committee Chair Charlene Kalia confirmed that the $2.5 million cash-in-hand local fundraising target "to get a shovel in the ground" was achieved on Monday and that this information was formally passed on to city officials. Meeting our community fundraising goal represents a huge achievement and I want to thank all those who have been a part of making it happen. To Paul and Charlene and the members of the fundraising committee who have worked so hard for the past eighteen months, to the families and volunteers associated with our three main user groups the LHA, LSC and TLGHA, and to all those local businesses, families and individuals who have contributed financially to this effort, I extend a big and heart-felt 'Thank You!' This is a community achievement and we couldn't have done it without everyone working together. It doesn't mean that our fundraising efforts are finished. We will still need to raise funds to finance aspects of the project that are not part of the tender and will provide more information on this later. In this regard, I encourage you to attend "Laugh out Loud in Leaside -- Act Three". This event has been a great success the past two years and promises to be another enjoyable evening of good food and drink, comedy and music, with great silent auction items. A flyer for the event is attached. I would also like to thank Councillor John Parker for all his hard work behind the scenes in bringing the various city departments together when required and in guiding the project through the approvals process at City Hall. We can now focus on getting the project out to tender, awarding the contract and beginning the construction phase as quickly as possible. So, while there is still a lot of work ahead of us, I want to again emphasize that yesterday represents a huge achievement on the part of the Leaside community and a major milestone in the long process of getting our second rink at Leaside Gardens. As Paul Mercer said, "January 17th is a day worth remembering! Congratulations to all board and committee members. And a big 'thank you' to the over 900 individuals and corporations that have made a financial contribution." Brooke Biscoe, Arena Board Chair Leaside Memorial Community Gardens.
An update from Arena Board Chair Brooke Biscoe
10 January 2012 As you may have heard or read, the Leaside Arena Expansion Proposal was approved by the Budget Committee of City Council last night and will go to the full Council for approval next week as part of the 2012 Budget. The proposal specifies that $2.5 million of the cost of building the new rink will come from local community fundraising. We are committed to meeting that target by the time Council considers the budget next week. And we are very close. With your help I am confident that we will achieve this important milestone. If you have not yet made your tax-receiptable donation, please consider doing so today. If you donated in 2011 and are in a position to increase your contribution now that we are in a new calendar year, your generosity today will help to get us across the goal line. Cheques should be made out to "The East York Foundation" and may be dropped off at the arena -- before Friday afternoon if at all possible. You can also donate on-line through Canada Helps which is linked from the donate page on our website, here. In addition, the 3rd Annual Laugh Out Loud Arena Fundraiser hosted by Charlene Kalia will be held on Friday, February 24th in the William Lea Room. Once again, this promises to be an enjoyable evening of music and comedy, with great food by Grill Time and tremendous silent and live auction items. Individual tickets are $75 (same price as last year) and you can also reserve your seating by purchasing a full table of ten for $750. All proceeds go to the expansion project and payment made within the next week will help us to meet our $2.5 million local fundraising goal to "get a shovel in the ground." To purchase tickets or tables, or for more information, contact Charlene Kalia, [email protected]. Thank you for your continuing support! Brooke Biscoe, Arena Board Chair Leaside Memorial Community Gardens. PS -- attached, in the read more, is our fundraising thermometer showing where we were as of late December. A number of additional donations and pledge-fulfillments have come in since that time. Join the Fundraising Committee, Arena Board and the user groups this Sunday for the Henderson Jersey Tour at Leaside Memorial Gardens! Hockey hero Paul Henderson, along with a few other special guests, will be in person to greet fans and support the arena expansion fundraising initiatives! Paul Henderson and the Henderson Jersey Homecoming Tour will be rolling into Leaside Memorial Gardens to support fundraising efforts for the expansion of the facilities, as well as to meet fans and celebrate an iconic piece of Canadian history. The free admission traveling exhibit features Henderson’s 1972 Summit Series Jersey, the hockey gloves he wore in that game, rare Canadian hockey memorabilia and interactive games and fun for all ages. Residents are encouraged to come out and enjoy the festivities. BBQ by Rob and Jessi Tremblett's Valumart Coffee by Mountain Bean Coffee LEASIDE GARDENS SEPT 25, 2011 11-5PM IF YOU HAVE BEEN CONSIDERING A NAMING OPPORTUNITY OR A DONATION, THIS IS THE DAY TO MAKE YOUR COMMITMENT! ALL DONATIONS RECEIVED ON SEPT 25TH WILL BE MATCHED BY SMARTCENTRES For more information please contact: Charlene Kalia Chair, Fundraising Committee Leaside Gardens Expansion Project [email protected] 416-953-1226
Supporters raising funds through spring and summer. As the past couple of months have shown, nothing brings Canadians closer together than hockey. That goes double for Leaside. Last year, a fundraising campaign was started to help raise money for a second ice pad at the constantly booked Leaside Gardens Arena. In addition to the fundraising efforts of the arena’s three main user groups, the Leaside Hockey Association, the Leaside Skating Club and Toronto Leaside Girls Hockey, several other members of the community have launched their own fundraising initiatives. Local real estate broker Patrick Rocca organized a barbecue in the late spring with the help of area merchants. “We had a jumping castle, face painting, it was more a family thing,” said Rocca. “The purpose was to raise some funds. “We were hoping to raise $4,000–5,000, which we did.” For Rocca, the event served to help raise awareness of the expansion project and its financial needs. He knows as well as anyone how badly the community wants a new rink. Rocca’s son played hockey at Leaside but has since joined another league. We are now entering the critical phase of our fundraising drive. We have so far raised $1.9 Million of the $2.5 Million community portion of the cost of building the new rink. We need to raise another $600,000 in the next twelve weeks. And we need your help to do it. Here is information about three fundraising events coming up in June. I hope you can join us for at least one of these activities. This email closes with a message from Expansion Committee Chair Paul Mercer emphasizing the urgency of our task.
1. Fundraising Mailing and follow-up Door-to-Door Canvass Those of you living in Leaside and other neighbourhoods near the arena will recently have received a letter from expansion committee chair Paul Mercer encouraging area residents to make a financial contribution in support of the new arena. To read this letter click here or to view the donor card click here. On Saturday, June 11th between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. we will be conducting a door to door canvass of every home in the area to follow up on that letter with volunteers from the arena board, the LHA, the LSC and the TLGHA. We are grateful for the ongoing support of our local elected representatives and are pleased that Councillor John Parker, MPP Kathleen Wynne and newly-elected MP John Carmichael are all committed to join us with a team of volunteers on June 11th. We still need more people in order to reach every home in the community. If you can help with this, please contact Allan Williams at [email protected]. 2. John Creighton Memorial Event – Thursday, June 2nd John Creighton was a lifelong Leasider and devoted hockey player, hockey parent, coach and LHA volunteer. When John died suddenly in February, it was a natural decision that donations in his memory should go towards building the second rink at Leaside. A memorial tribute this Thursday night at Originals on Bavyiew aims to raise $25,000 to name one of the dressing rooms in the existing rink in his memory. Tickets are $75 per person and everyone is welcome. See the flyer here. 3. Family Barbecue – Thursday, June 9th On Thursday, June 9th from 6 – 8 p.m. Rob Tremblett of Tremblett’s Valu-Mart is hosting a Family Barbecue at Canadian Self-Storage, immediately across the road from the arena. Everyone is welcome and all proceeds will go towards the new arena. Click here to view the flyer that has also been distributed throughout the neighbourhood. 4. “There is an urgency here!” The $9.5 Million Leaside Arena Expansion plan approved by the City of Toronto included our commitment to raise $2.5 Million of the total cost in the local community and from our user groups. And we need to meet this goal by August before putting a shovel in the ground. Expansion Committee Chair Paul Mercer recently emphasized the urgency of our task: “Twelve years of hoping, dreaming, planning and hard work now gets reduced to the next twelve weeks. Before the end of August we – the local community – need to identify $600,000 to make this second rink a reality. If you or your child or grandchild have had a positive experience at LMCG skating or playing hockey please help extend that opportunity to others by making a donation now. Sixty years ago the Community came together to build this arena for the enjoyment of all. Today we need to build on that legacy and carry on the tradition." - Paul Mercer, Expansion Committee Chair. Finally, I can report that work with the architects and with city officials towards finalising the design of the project and securing a contractor with a goal of starting construction in late summer is going well. I will provide an update on this aspect of the project another time. My focus today is on fundraising and I ask again for your help in the weeks ahead to help get us across the goal line! Sincerely, Brooke Biscoe, Chair Leaside Memorial Community Gardens Dear Neighbour,
For the thousands of kids who have skated and played hockey here since 1951, Leaside Gardens is a cherished focal point in the landscape of their memory. The Leaside Skating Club, Leaside Hockey Association, and Leaside Toronto Girls Hockey Association, whose programs together account for more than 95% of our prime-time ice time usage, have long realised that far more kids want to participate than can be accommodated on our existing single ice pad. Building a second rink at Leaside Gardens has been our vision since the 1990s. Although slow to take off, the Arena Expansion Project has moved forward quickly in the past two years. In February Toronto City Council approved a proposal to build the second rink at an approximate cost of $9.5 million of which $7 million will come from a city-guaranteed loan, and $2.5 million must be raised by the local community and our partner associations. Leaside Gardens was originally financed through the efforts of local organisations including all the home and school associations, church groups and service clubs who conducted a door-to-door canvass of every home in the area. It is only appropriate that the local community, which will benefit most directly from the second rink, again be asked to raise a portion of the cost of building it. We have already raised more than $1.9 million of the $2.5 million community fundraising goal through the efforts of our partner associations, area businesses and individuals, and with a very generous donation from a local family wishing to remain anonymous. Now I am asking you, as a member of our community, to make a financial commitment towards making our shared vision of more ice time for more kids closer to home a reality. We need to reach our target before August 1st in order to stay on track for starting construction this fall and opening in time for September 2012. Included is a project summary sheet as well as a reply card and return envelope with which you can make your contribution. Donations are tax-deductible and can be made to “East York Foundation (Leaside Arena Expansion Project).” For information on naming opportunities within the new rink, donor recognition plans, or to contact me or any other member of the Arena Expansion Committee directly with any questions or comments. Thank you in advance for your support of this most worthwhile community project. Sincerely, Paul Mercer, Chair Leaside Arena Expansion Committee. |
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