These days, working space appears to come at a premium.
The Sports Equipment for Kids Foundation is closing its sports equipment collection and distribution program, and the Optimist Club of Red Deer is wary of the approaching spring bicycle-riding season, as both organizations are losing their donated work and storage space at Golden West Industrial Park at the end of next month.
Brian Ennis, president of the Sports Equipment for Kids Foundation, said he and his eight-member board met on Monday night to discuss what to do with their “thousands and thousands” of pieces of sporting goods left at the property, where they also used to repair and clean the equipment before giving it away.
“It’s pretty emotional. It’s been eight years (since the group was founded) . . . it’s a hard thing to do, but you’ve got to be realistic, too, right? We’re passionate about what we do and we don’t want to see any kids not participate in sports because of this,” Ennis said, explaining that they are trying to hand off their inventory to local sports associations to give out themselves.
“We don’t want to leave anybody in the lurch, but we’ll see if this works better with the different sports groups.”
For example, their hockey equipment — the most common items in the inventory — will be going to the Red Deer Pond Hockey League.
Ennis stressed that his foundation isn’t shutting down completely and that they’ll keep finding different ways to help young local athletes, whether by sending one child to a hockey camp or another to an NBA game.
He also pointed out that he doesn’t fault Border Paving, the company that loaned his group and the Optimist Club the space, for needing room to expand their business. He appreciates what they’ve done, he said, and they deserve recognition for it.
The foundation considered renting space, but decided in the end it couldn’t really afford to do its work and pay monthly rent. And donated space just doesn’t have enough stability to warrant starting up the program again, Ennis said.
Ken Williamson is a member of the Optimist Club of Red Deer and one of the bicycle-repair veterans who restores bikes and gives them out to local children whose families can’t afford them.
One of Williamson’s fellow repairmen volunteered a space in his apartment building to work on the bicycles, and Williamson’s brother has offered the use of his property outside the city for the sea containers used as bicycle storage.
It’s a temporary measure, one that might get them through the next year, he estimates.
With the recent handout of seven bikes to Central Alberta Refugee Effort, the group has given out pretty much all of its inventory. They usually do their repair work in winter — spring-summer and Christmas are the big handout seasons — but these days the group is more consumed with moving and setting up a new shop.
mgauk@www.reddeeradvocate.com