$38K Kinsmen donation will fund more free swimming, skating

By Mo Cranker on October 12, 2018.

mcranker@medicinehatnews.com @MHNmocranker

The Medicine Hat Kinsmen Club presented a cheque for more than $38,000 to the City of Medicine Hat Thursday at the Family Leisure Centre to fund free public swimming and skating programs.

The Kinsmen Club has been funding the free skating program for 34 years and the swimming program for 25.

“This is a donation the club makes every year and we have for many years,” said club president Tom Simpson. “This allows free public skating and free public swimming at a number of city facilities for designated hours.”

The free swim program is offered at the Hill, Heights and Strathcona pools during the months of July and August, and offered 73 hours of free swimming in 2017 — which 4,868 people attended.

The free skating program is offered at the Kinplex, Family Leisure Centre, the Moose and the Hockey Hounds Recreation centre. The program offers 23 hours of skate time weekly in the winter months. A total of 17,749 people attended the free skating sessions in 2017.

Simpson says these programs are important for the Kinsmen to keep alive.

“This has been a long-standing project and we feel that the community really values this,” he said. “We identified this years ago as important and we still think it’s important, which is why we’re still funding it.”

Mayor Ted Clugston was on hand Thursday to accept the cheque on behalf of the city and he says the program is an important one in the city.

“We often get emails from people about the cost of using some facilities like the FLC and when we do we always point people to these free programs,” said Clugston. “The Kinsmen Club has been doing this for many years, and were a big part of fundraising for the aquatic centre here at the FLC.

“These are very popular programs and they’re possible thanks to the Kinsmen.”

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