Medicine Hat Judo Club receives grant
By JAMES TUBB on October 20, 2021.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Judo Club has been selected by Canadian Tire’s Jumpstart program to receive a grant from its Sport Relief Fund.
Donovan Hoggan, president of the Medicine Hat Judo Club, says the $7,349 grant will help keep the club afloat after they waived everyones fees during COVID shutdowns.
“It just wasn’t fair to charge anybody,” Hoggan said. “Which I think was absolutely the right decision but it did leave us with a pretty impressive deficit. So Jumpstart has stepped up and covered that deficit for us.”
He says the grant will allow the club to continue operating with without worrying about money and he says it lets them keep their focus where it belongs, which is doing what is good for the kids. Hoggan also says it helps them avoid raising registration fees. Given the pandemic, that’s something Hoggan says they weren’t interested in doing.
“A lot of our families, COVID has not been gentle on a lot of people financially,” he said. “To raise the fees right now would be a real hardship for a lot of people and I don’t ever want to see a kid who wants to be physically active sidelined over money.”
Hoggan says judo is a great way to teach kids important life lessons through sport.
“I always think, particularly for kids, we don’t teach judo. We teach emotional regulation, we teach setting and achieving long-term goals, we teach team work and all sorts of skills like that. Judo is just the vehicle we use to do that.”
Anyone interested in joining the judo club can find more information at medhatjudo.com.
