{"id":59290,"date":"2025-06-03T14:43:02","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T17:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chmafm.com\/welcome\/?p=59290"},"modified":"2025-06-05T22:01:37","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T01:01:37","slug":"fundraising-campaign-asks-rink-supporters-to-grab-a-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chmafm.com\/welcome\/fundraising-campaign-asks-rink-supporters-to-grab-a-seat\/","title":{"rendered":"Fundraising campaign asks rink supporters to ‘grab a seat’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Active Living and Culture director Matt Pryde and former Sackville councillor Joyce O’Neil. Photo: Municipality of Tantramar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Matt Pryde is hoping to fill the Tantramar Veterans Memorial Civic Centre with new 630 new seats by the fall of 2026<\/a>, and he\u2019s asking the community for help to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe rink has been around for over 20 years now,\u201d said the Active Living and Culture director after a May Tantramar council meeting. \u201cAnd we’ve heard a lot of feedback from people over the years about their butts being cold. So we thought it’d be a good time to try to reach out to the community and see if the same people that supported the rink construction to begin with would be interested in supporting putting some seats in there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donors can \u2018grab a seat\u2019<\/a> for a donation of $350 or more. The campaign aims to raise $189,000 to $220,000 to fully outfit the civic centre with new seating. \u201cWe’re just going to keep going until we hit our target,\u201d said Pryde. \u201cThe hope is to be able to get seats in there for the 2026-27 season.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, the campaign has brought in donations for 50 seats, and Pryde says the municipality is having “lots of conversations with other potential sponsors.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The civic centre opened in 2004, and at the time replaced Allison Gardens<\/a>, the former Mt A rink which stood on Lansdowne Street until 2003, on the site where the university is currently building a temporary library and future athletic centre<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three levels of government contributed $1 million each toward the original civic centre project, and another $1.2 million was fundraised to fully outfit the centre, with help from volunteers like former Sackville town councillor Joyce O\u2019Neil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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‘When people cooperate, you can get stuff done’: celebrating 20 years of the Civic Centre<\/a><\/blockquote>