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A February Christmas gift |
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Written by Lethbridge Herald
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Tuesday, November 11 2008, 9:25 PM |
The economic coldsnap is suggesting it could be a less than festive holiday season for the Lethbridge business community.
Fortunately, an economic chinook is in the local forecast for February.
It’s called the Alberta 55-Plus Winter Games and it could be just the thing to thaw local cash registers, if briefly.
The Games, to be held Feb. 19-22, will bring to Lethbridge more than 1,000 participants aged 55 and older from across the province. They’ll be competing in 13 events — alpine skiing, badminton, five-pin bowling, carpet bowling, cross-country skiing, curling, duplicate bridge, euchre, hockey, Scrabble, shuffleboard, snooker and table tennis.
In addition to competitors, organizers expect the Games to draw another 400 or 500 visitors. Besides taking part in the Games, these people will be staying in hotels, eating in restaurants, shopping in stores and perhaps visiting local tourist attractions. Some of them might even be scouting out Lethbridge and area as a potential retirement site.
There’s no question when Lethbridge plays host to a major event of any kind, there are economic spinoffs. For example, Economic Development Lethbridge pegged the financial benefits from the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, which drew the country’s top women curlers to the city in February 2007, at more than $4 million.
Events held locally depend upon the efforts of dedicated volunteers and the Alberta 55-Plus Winter Games will require an army of about 800 volunteers and directors to ensure the event runs smoothly.
Fundraising is also continuing in an effort to raise about $500,000 through gifts in kind, sponsorship and donations toward the overall Games budget of about $1 million, which is partially funded by provincial contributions.
Anyone interested in being part of the volunteer contingent for the Games can obtain more information from the local Games office, 403-388-8992, or online at www.55pluswintergames.com.
On the surface, it might seem to be bad timing for Lethbridge to be playing host to these provincial games with economic storm clouds on the horizon.
When Lethbridge won the bid in June 2007, the dollar still hadn’t yet peaked, bringing Canada’s manufacturing sector to its knees. The U.S. mortgage crisis had yet to peak, and asset-backed commercial paper was still a couple months away from being frozen, leaving plenty of Canadian cash in limbo.
At the time, the economy seemed to be on an endless roll. Today, it’s a very different story on the economic front, making the challenge of fundraising for the Games all the more, well, challenging.
But those who donate in these times of financial turmoil will be making an investment in what might prove to be a late Christmas present for the local business community.
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