The 2014 Alberta Summer Games, held in Airdrie from July 24 to 27, will leave the city with a lasting impact after the organizing committee announced the creation of a legacy fund during the Airdrie City council meeting on Dec. 15.
Chair of the organizing committee Al Jones said after the final financial numbers are counted, which is expected to take about a year, a surplus will remain.
“It is my privilege to announce a legacy fund to be contributed back to our community of approximately $375,000,” Jones said.
According to Jones, a legacy committee is in the process of being set up and criteria for granting the funds are being determined.
“We’re working on the criteria right now, which we hope to have done by the end of January, and then we’ll release the applications to the public,” Jones said.
“The legacy committee will go through the various applications and see which ones fit the criteria and will benefit Airdrie residents as a whole, and those will be put forward for legacy grants.”
If all goes according to plan, the first grants will be disbursed in April 2015, according to Jones.
The surplus was created after a swell of support from the local business community in the two weeks leading up to the games provided the committee with additional support, either in-kind or in actual dollars, according to Jones.
“Services that we expected to pay for or product that we expected to pay for, businesses decided to donate so we ended up not having to pay for it at all, which gave us budget relief,” Jones said. “For a small business $500 is just as big a sacrifice as a large corporation donating $10,000. I think it’s important to recognize that the business community as a whole was very supportive, to make the games a success.”
According to Jones, additional revenue was generated through ticket sales and souvenir sales.
“There was (more than) $200,000 in ticket sales from people who came to watch the sporting events, and approximately $15,000 that was brought in from souvenir sales,” Jones said. “There were monies made from the games themselves.”
Jones said the types of projects to be funded by the legacy fund will be those that fulfill a particular mandate.
“We are looking for legacy-type projects where all Airdronians, even five years from now, can drive by something and say ‘I helped build that’ or ‘I helped do that.’ We want something a little more lasting,” he said. “The mandate of the summer games as a whole dictates that 75 per cent of the funds will go towards sports, given that sports was what the event was about.”
The members of Airdrie City council said they were both excited by the success of the games and by the announcement of the Legacy Fund.
“What can I say? It was just a spectacular event,” said Mayor Peter Brown.
