The Barrhead Agrena Society is well on its way to fulfilling its $1.5 million contribution to the town’s aquatic centre, society president Shannon Carlson says.
“We’ve raised more than one million so far and have had some pretty big donations,” he said, adding he cannot name some of the donors yet due to ongoing negotiations.
Despite last year’s economic downturn, it was an excellent year for fundraising, he said.
When asked if the society had a contingency plan in place should the goal of $1.5 million not be met, Carlson said Wednesday, Jan. 4 that they have every confidence the society will get there before the grand opening of the town’s aquatic centre.
In addition to a 50/50 raffle for a $50,000 cash prize, for which only 5,000 tickets have been printed, he said there is a dessert and dinner auction planned for February and grants that have been applied for.
“Tickets for the raffle are available from businesses all over town and are only $20 a piece,” he said, adding he believes the odds to win the prize money to be pretty good.
“One other thing that should be mentioned is that we’ve put in our own application for the Big Valley Jamboree Small Town Saturday Night concert contest,” he said, adding residents will be able to vote online in February.
If successful, it would mean that Australian-Canadian country music star Gord Bamford would perform at the Barrhead Agrena in April.
Bamford has had nine songs chart on the Canadian Hot 100 chart including Blame It On That Red Dress, When Your Lips Are So Close, Unreal and Where A Farm Used To Be.
According to the Big Valley Jamboree website, online voting runs from Feb. 1 to 15 and the Top 10 finalists will be announced Feb. 16.
