Legacy fund keeps on giving

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
As the Kamloops Blazers were warming up for their WHL playoff game on the Interior Savings Centre ice surface Tuesday evening, their legacy was making a whole lot of noise in the Rivers Room.
The Kamloops Blazers Sports Society, which oversees the Sports Legacy Fund, announced before Tuesday’s game that it has awarded grants of $380,000 to 27 community sport organizations.
Those grants have been further leveraged by $150,000, providing a total community investment of $530,000.
Combined with grants that were awarded for 2009, a total of 44 community sport organizations have been allocated $704,500. That money has been used for organizational capacity building, volunteer recognition, coaching and officials development, capital projects, equipment purchases and athletic scholarships.
“Things have gone really well,” offered Murray Owen, the society’s president. “We are quite pleased.”
The KBSS, then the owner of the Blazers franchise, was incorporated as a non-profit society in 1987. When its membership voted in August 2007 to sell the franchise to private owners, the Sports Legacy Fund was initiated and started with assets of $1.4 million from the Kamloops Blazers Sports Foundation.
The legacy fund was publicly launched on Dec. 19, 2008, with an asset base of $7.5 million, including the proceeds from the sale of assets to what was then River City Hockey Inc. That base is invested in what the fund’s annual report refers to as a “conservatively balanced portfolio.”
Last night, Bob Smillie, the society’s executive director, presented a list of the 27 organizations that have received the most-recent grants.
The list includes the Kamloops Collegiate Hockey Society, which oversees the TRU WolfPack hockey team that completed its first season last weekend. It received $21,000 in 2009 and another $9,500 for 2010.
“Without that funding it would have been extremely difficult for us to field a team,” said Mitch Zulinick of the KCHS. “That allowed us to outfit our guys with proper gear.”
The WolfPack reached the B.C. intercollegiate league’s sudden-death final, where it lost 2-1 to Simon Fraser University on Sunday in Langley.
Also benefiting was the Overlander Ski Club, which received a $20,000 matching grant.
“That will allow the club to complete a lighting project that it began in 2009,” Smillie said, adding that when finished the Stake Lake loop will have enough lighting to allow for night skiing.
As it did in 2009, the Pacific Sport Interior received $80,000 for its program of Coach Development grants.
“This is unique in B.C. and probably Canada,” Byron McCorkell, the City’s director of parks, recreation and cultural services, said of the legacy fund. “The future looks really, really good.”
Smillie explained that last night’s gathering is to become an annual event because the society’s board wants to maintain a transparent relationship with the community.
The next application period for groups interested in obtaining grants runs from Oct. 1 through Nov. 30. For more information, check the society’s website — www.kamloopsblazerssportssociety.com.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com

THE RECIPIENTS
Recipients of Sports Legacy Fund grants for 2010:
Harper Mountain Ski Club — $7,000
Kamloops Blazers academic awards — $800
Kamloops city junior golf championship — $2,000
Kamloops Collegiate Hockey Society — $9,500
Kamloops Gymnastics and Trampoline Centre — $12,500
Kamloops Jr. B Rattlers lacrosse club — $3,250
Kamloops Junior Football Association — $14,125
Kamloops Long Blades Association — $3,500
Kamloops midget AAA RiverDogs — $5,875
Kamloops Minor Baseball Association — $14,800
Kamloops Minor Lacrosse Association — $2,250
Kamloops Mystixs bantam AAA hockey — $1,250
Kamloops Pickleball Club — $5,500
Kamloops Rugby Club — $1,000
Kamloops Sports Council — $50,000
Kamloops Team Handball Society — $500
Kamloops Youth Darts — $250
Kamloops Youth Soccer Association — $4,000
KidSport Chapter — $30,000
KMHA 2010 Coaches Conference - $5,000
Matt Kolle Hockey Development Society (Ice Pirates hockey) - $15,100
NorKam Football Booster Club — $1,400
Overlander Ski Club — $20,000
Pacific Sport Interior — $80,000
River City Squash Organization — $3,700
Sports Hall of Fame — $25,000
Sun Peaks Alpine Club — $14,200
Thompson Blazers major midget hockey — $10,000
Thompson Okanagan Diving Training Centre — $2,000
TRU athletics program — $25,750
TRU Sports Task Force — $10,000