Area 27 made a $4,500 donation last week through Spirit of the Game Society for a new playground surface at Osoyoos Child Care Centre. The surface will allow playground equipment donated last year by Osoyoos Credit Union to be installed. Some of the youngsters may have been getting a head start on car racing careers. (Richard McGuire photo)
The Osoyoos Child Care Centre will be able to go ahead with installing playground equipment thanks to a donation from Area 27 through the Spirit of the Game Society.
The Area 27 motorsports club donated $4,500 last Wednesday to help fund the cost of a playground surface, which must be in place before the equipment is installed.
On hand for the presentation was Bill Drossos, Area 27 president, and board members of Spirit of the Game Society, including chair Mike Campol and directors Gene Lockerby, Becky Campol and Brock Jackson.
Osoyoos Child Care Centre Manager Karen Greig also assembled many youngsters for the photo op, some showing an aptitude for car racing by posing in plastic toy cars.
Drossos said his members have held a number of charitable fundraising activities during their get-togethers at Spirit Ridge in recent years.
“If we were going to raise money, I’d like to see it stay in the Okanagan and South Okanagan community,” said Drossos, noting that Area 27 members come from many locations.
“That’s why we chose Spirit of the Game to be involved,” he said.
Among the fundraising activities were auctions of racing memorabilia such as a helmet donated by racing star Jacques Villeneuve that was his backup helmet the year he raced in the Indy 500. It sold for thousands of dollars.
Villeneuve has played a major role in the design and construction of the Area 27 racetrack near Oliver.
Campol, who is also a Town of Osoyoos councillor, said the need for funding of the playground surface was brought to his attention at an open council meeting where the public could provide input on the town budget. He immediately thought of Spirit of the Game.
“I knew that we were in a position as a society to do it,” he said. “It didn’t fall directly within our mandate, so I asked our board to see if there was an appetite to make a donation this size, which we’ve never done before. It was a unanimous response that they felt encouraging kids to be outdoors and giving them the means to do it was definitely close enough to our mandate.”
Spirit of the Game Society is a local non-profit organization dedicated to helping children who lack the financial means to participate in organized sports.
The playground equipment was donated by Osoyoos Credit Union last year, but without the playground surface, it could not be installed for safety reasons.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
