The Rotary Club of Prince Albert is moving forward with their Centennial Project the Rotary Adventure Park to be located at Little Red. Rotary will also be continuing to fundraise for the project with the upcoming 16th Annual Lobsterfest.
Rotary president Keith Fonstad explained that a vendor has been selected for the construction of the playground portion of the Adventure Park as previewed recently on the club’s Facebook page.
“We are hoping to finalize in the next 30 days the final plans and what that park will look like .so hopefully in the next 30 days we will have that in place. And then we will continue to work with the city on kind of making sure we know exactly where it is going to sit within the park,” Fonstad said.
The new park will be located near Cosmo Lodge and is designed to include challenging play structures for youth of all ages. They are also finalizing other components for the park including a couple of additional picnic shelters, other additional picnic sites, some upgraded washroom facilities, some walking trails, some lighting, park benches and a refresh of the parking lot to be a little bit more suitable. Another phase in the future will be looking at a facelift on the sliding hill located nearby.
According to Fonstad they have been working on the project for almost three years. The project was initially announced in 2020 to celebrate the club’s centennial before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. “We had a year’s delay because of COVID so we were ready to kind of go with this and we were ready to move it forward last March…we announced the project at our centennial supper and that was on the February 29 of 2020 and then of course three weeks later the world shut down.
The planning process took a break before really picking up steam in the fall and spring.
“We are looking forward to getting all of the planning done this year and having everything lined up and moving on this project as quickly as we can,” Fonstad said.
The club continues to fundraise for the project through their major fundraisers including the Wine Premier and Lobsterfest, which is approaching on May 8. The funds from the 2019 and 2020 Wine Premier were put towards the project as will the 2021 events.
The Wine Premier was hosted virtually in November and because of the success of the event they hosted a second one around Valentine’s Day. “We determined a way to make the Wine Premier work and we had a very successful Wine Premier. And that was a frozen meal delivered in November where we could have the meal any night that you would like. So we had some people who used it for their New Year’s. It was delivered in November and they used it for their New Year’s Eve,” Fonstad said.
The success of the Wine Premier led to changes in the format for the Lobsterfest.
“Internally it was good for our members and also it was externally good for getting involved in the community and giving the community an opportunity to do something. And so when we were planning now for the Lobsterfest we have taken that experience and brought that to Lobsterfest knowing that I guess with the hope that we would be able to gather in smaller groups at whether it is somebody’s house or whatnot,” he explained.
According to Fonstad they were hoping that vaccinations would be far enough along and warmer weather would allow people to make outdoor plans around Lobsterfest. The meal provided will be fresh Atlantic lobster, steak or game stuffed game hen accompanied by appetizers, sides, desserts and a choice of red or white wine. Also included with the meal are instructions for meal preparation YouTube videos including a message from Fonstad, Randy Whitter on lobster “steaming and cracking” and Doug Reichel discussing wine pairings.
“You can either have a lobster, a steak or there is also if neither of those options are a preference there is a game hen, a stuffed game hen option as well that Randy has put together for anybody who is looking for a different option. So you get those entrees plus you get the appetizers,the sides, the dessert and then either an option of white wine or a red wine to go with your meal,” Fonstad explained.
Fonstad said that the in person event usually has a focus around prizes and after working with donors they have found a way to do an online version the Raffle Lottery. “We worked with our donors and our sponsors to do that again this year but we brought it to an online platform and it has allowed just everybody to participate instead of just those people who are in person. So we are well over $29,000 worth of prizes. There is 100 prizes on our prize list,” Fonstad said.
“That main lottery raffle is a great deal and then we have our running 50/50 that Market Tire was nice enough to help us with a donation to get it started, as of today (Friday) it is up over $8,500,” he added.
There is also one $25 charitable donation receipt and select packages will include a $50 Canadian Tire gift card as ‘door’ prize.
Tickets have been available since April 1 and the cost is $100.
The information for all of these projects are all available at the Rotary website (www.princealbertrotary.org).
“We are hoping it will go over we are at 55 per cent of our meals are sold already and we have got two weeks to go before they close. So if anybody is looking for a meal they should order sooner rather than later,” Fonstad said.
To contribute to the Adventure Park there is also a donation button at the Rotary website and to discuss in kind or other contributions get in touch with Fonstad or other Rotarians.
