ZENON PARK, Sask. – For curler Mary Hudon, change is a good thing.
The president of the Zenon Park curling club said joining the Zenon Park Community Partners probably saved her club from extinction.
“If not for the Community Partners, I’m not sure if our curling rink, arena and hall would still be open,” she said. “Because of it, we’ve had some things getting done that would have been next to impossible.”
Jobs like painting floors, installing a new furnace and building a new kitchen would have required the small board to take out a bank loan, she said.
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The community partners group, which meets regularly and includes representation from all local organizations, now manages the fundraising and bookkeeping, freeing up Hudon’s board members to focus on making the ice or catering a midnight lunch during a bonspiel.
“We have less to do now as a board,” she said.
The Partners’ current fundraising effort is a trip of the month lottery, which sells more than 300 tickets each year and raises $22,000 to support the improvements, maintenance and operations of local facilities.
Fundraising by the one large group has yielded benefits for all, said Hudon.
“There’s no way one organization could pull it off in the same way,” she said. “With Community Partners, fundraising is done at such a bigger scale.”
Businesses and residents appreciate the streamlined fundraising drive, said Celine Favreau, economic development officer for Zenon Park.
“People felt like there was always something coming at you,” she said.
Favreau and village administrator Lisa LeBlanc said Community Partners was formed to manage all the community services better and avoid straining the resources of local volunteers.
It was incorporated and a strategic plan created in 2001, after residents learned of a similar model in Wanham, Alta.
Planning first began in 1998 with public meetings, where community leaders identified Zenon Park’s strengths and weaknesses and formed goals and objectives.
Favreau said the bilingual village of 231 residents initially faced many hurdles.
It was divided over a number of issues, including the creation of a second school run by the French school board.
There were few events taking place because volunteers were burned out, she said.
“The goal of the organization was to get people together, create an environment that’s all inclusive and get people talking and create opportunities to do things,” Favreau said.
“Now there’s a really positive atmosphere,” she said, citing recent events like a heritage bonspiel and a block party.
Marc LeBlanc, chair of Community Partners, said the program has worked well for Zenon Park.
“Our resources are all concentrated into one instead of spread out over three or four boards,” he said.
“With less and less people, the more we concentrate on one big picture, chances are we’ll stay alive longer,” he said.
Hudon said her curling board has maintained its independence from Community Partners, but its workload is greatly reduced and fewer people are needed to serve.
“It’s the same people on four or five boards,” she said of life in a small town.
The program still has its detractors, particularly among those who prefer to handle their own affairs, but they are slowly coming around, said LeBlanc.
Francis Chabot, chair of the economic development committee and former chair of Community Partners, said the umbrella group provides a forum for a good exchange of information between all the groups in town and helps determine the most important community needs.
“When we sit around the table, we discuss issues pertaining to all aspects of the community,” he said. He noted as examples the efforts to maintain or recruit doctors and seek out assisted living units to keep seniors in their home community longer.
It has also allowed the farming community to do some crystal ball gazing, economic development and job creation.
Marc LeBlanc said it’s important to maintain basic levels of service to keep and attract citizens.
“Without that, it’s not too appealing to come out here,” he said.
Pooling funds and human resources has allowed for savings on supplies now purchased in bulk, but also allows for quick responses to major challenges as they arise like a furnace breakdown at the curling rink, said Lisa LeBlanc.
“Now the whole community is responsible for the facility, not just a little group of people,” she said.
“Before, we were so busy with the day to day, we couldn’t focus on the future.”
