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By Shane Clausing

Community

Grande Prairie Regional Sport Connection to use $35,000 grant for after-school sports program

Sep 11, 2020 | 9:14 AM

The Grande Prairie Regional Sport Connection is one of seven recipients of the Makadiff Grassroots Community Sport Innovation Challenge Grant.

The $35,000 grant will help launch the YQU 4 All Sport Initiative at four schools in the Grande Prairie Public School Division, the Swanavon School, Hillside Community School, Avondale School and Maude Clifford Public School.

YQU 4 All Sport Initiative will bring free after school multisport programming to youth in the community and also train and develop sport leaders/coaches to lead the programming by providing coach training such as High Five, First-Aid and National Coaching Certification Program free of charge.

“It really means a lot for what I envision for some really new opportunities for sports development,” said Karna Germsheid with the Grande Prairie Regional Sport Connection.

Germsheid spoke about why they decided to choose the four schools to benefit from this grant and the program.

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“They are identified as schools with high need. More of the students are high need students or students with less social-economic abilities to participate in sports. So, there are a higher number of kids who don’t have the opportunity to participate in sport, even if the extra circular sports is offered due to transportation.”

Germsheid points to some students at these schools who want to participate in sports and can participate in sports but can’t because they take the bus and might not have a ride home because their parents are working or the busses aren’t running.

She says that with this money, they will make sure that students will have some sort of method of transportation to get home if its needed.

As for what sports could be implanted through this program, Germsheid said there are lots of possibilities.

“We would really like to host some sports that kids can play beyond this multi-sport program at a low cost as well. And also a sport that kids aren’t really familiar with, so everyone is starting at the same level of the sport.”

She says they have an idea of what sports they want to implement but added that they need to confirm future plans with the public school board.

Makadiff sports is also giving the seven recipients of the grant a chance to earn $50,000 more for their program.

According to Germsheid, if the schools submit a video showing the success of the program, they could earn more money.

The program is expected to launch in January, pending it is safe to do so because of the COVID-19 pandemic.