EDMONTON – McKernan’s annual Winterfest celebration Sunday afternoon was also the site of a groundbreaking ceremony that will see the Edmonton neighbourhood’s aging community hall get a million-dollar makeover.
Construction on major renovations to the nearly 60-year-old McKernan Community Hall at 11341 78th Ave. will get underway in April, the culmination of a process that began nearly six years ago.
“It’s like a dream come true,” said Hilary Gray of the McKernan Community League. “We have worked very, very hard to get to this point.”
The hall was built in 1954. Gray says like many community halls in the city, it’s in a state of disrepair; old, crumbling and in desperate need of renovation. In 2006, mould was discovered in the walls in the basement at McKernan, a problem which required a $30,000 fix and a lot of soul-searching.
“It made us realize that with the age of the hall, we would either have to forget about it and let the community league crumble,” says Gray, “or do something to set the ball in motion to get a new hall.”
That ball started rolling in 2008, when Gray struck a 10-member committee given the task of raising enough money not just to renovate the existing hall, but to construct an addition. Through donations, fundraising and grants from both the city and province, that goal was finally realized.
The addition will have a number of environmentally green features, including a rainwater collection system and energy appliances. The new metal roof will provide solar water heating for water use and radiant heating, while low-tech “earth tubes” will preheat or cool incoming outside air.
All of this is made possible through $400,000 from the city’s community league infrastructure program, which the community league was able to match through fundraising, rental revenues and donations. The league also received $200,000 from the province’s community facility enhancement program.
The McKernan Child Care Society donated $50,000 to the project. An after-school daycare facility and one of the hall’s long-term tenants, it has grown over the past 25 years as demand for daycare spaces in the area skyrocketed. As a result, says Gray, there’s been little space available for other programming.
All that will soon change.
“We’ve been dying to have a mom and tots program going during the day,” Gray said. “We’ve been dying to have programs for seniors. This (renovation) means we’ll be able to do those things.”
It also means that for the first time, the community league will have an office.
“We’re so excited,” says Gray, then laughs. “We’ll actually have our own office instead of having boxes of stuff stored in rooms in other people’s houses around the neighbourhood.”
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