The sound of bouncing balls and squeaking runners can be heard as people of all ages break-in the newly completed multi-sport court in Morris, just in time for summer holidays.
Members of the Red River Wellness Committee were joined by local students and community members to cut the ribbon on the brand-new facility at a grand opening celebration on Friday.
"This is wonderful! Students are out here using it now and to feel the community here, it's an unreal feeling," said Susan Chartier, chair of the committee and project instigator. "I also can't believe we did this because it was a lot of work and a lot of money, but we did."
Five years ago, Chartier and her husband had the vision of refurbishing the old court at Morris School after visiting other communities during camping trips and seeing similar projects being done.
"It got us thinking about maybe we could do something like that in Morris. It wasn't such a big cost when they could just refurbish the court."
The couple returned home with this idea and submitted a proposal to the Red River Valley School Division. It was approved, but on the condition that the project would be funded by the community. From there, the Red River Wellness Committee was formed with the sole mission of getting this done.
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Not long into the process, however, they hit a snag.
"The dilapidated court never worked out because the base wasn't proper, it was just asphalt plunked down when they made a cul de sac here at the school. So, that changed our project entirely," explained Chartier.
So, the decision was made to make a brand-new court, an endeavour that would end up costing $283,175. But the committee and the community rallied and made it happen.
While grants and fund raising helped generate the funds needed, Chartier says most of the money came from individual and business donations.
"The love and support and encouragement we got from the whole community on this, [it] was the right thing to do and here we stand today."
She offered these final words of encouragement to anyone else who might be thinking of taking on a local project.
"Do something for your community. This will be a sort of legacy thing for us. We may be too old to end up play on here, but we can look at it say we did something for our community and that is just an awesome feeling. No matter how big or how small, when you've got support, things happen."
