HUMBOLDT — Work is underway to prepare for a fundraising campaign to raise money for a $35 million Tribute Centre to honour the 2017-18 Humboldt Broncos.
The City of Humboldt has hired DCG Philanthropic to co-ordinate the campaign.
“They've been doing a lot of work over the last few months, mostly focused on developing committees – both local committees and provincial committees – who will then reach out to some of those organizations that have showed an interest previously [in making a donation to a Broncos tribute],” said Joe Day, the city manager.
“Rather than it being all in the responsibility of the consultant, it puts a little bit more of a personal touch if there's a local committee that reaches out to a local organization.”
Not many fundraising activities have been done since the campaign was announced on April 5. Day said there will be more activity towards the end of the year.
“It is just a matter of reaching out and contacting those people that have shown interest previously, just to see if they're still interested, if they like the concept of the Tribute Center, but we haven't really actually requested funding from much of anybody right now.”
The Tribute Centre project could include a second ice surface, fitness centre and tribute gallery.
When it was announced in April, the estimated cost was placed at $25 million.
“Some observations were that it wouldn't necessarily be everything that people's expectations were if we tried to stay to a $25 million budget,” Day said. “We're basically saying that, if we can reach $35 million, then we can probably build something that will meet everybody's expectations.”
As for paying DCG Philanthropic for their work, Day said the city anticipates those costs will become part of the overall structure and be funded through donations.
“We view the agreement with DCG, for this facility, the same as we work for, say, an architectural firm or a design firm,” he said. “It becomes a cost that becomes part of what the overall center itself is.”
As for a memorial at the Highway 35-335 intersection, Day said work is still underway on that project as well.
“At this point, there's still some delays with respect to just ensuring that all of the utilities that run by there are either worked around or relocated.”
