Photo: The UNITED Health & RecPlex takes shape, June 2013
WINNIPEG, MB – The Thomas Sill Foundation is donating $200,000 towards The University of Winnipeg’s new UNITED Health & RecPlex to create a community multi-purpose room, ensuring dedicated space for the health, wellness, recreation and education of inner city youth and residents. The Thomas Sill Community Multi-Purpose Room is the first “naming” inside the RecPlex which is currently under construction and is slated to open in fall 2014.
Ken Grower, President and Governor of the Thomas Sill Foundation, is a UWinnipeg graduate who is deeply committed to strengthening opportunities within the inner city. “The focus on community inclusion that The University of Winnipeg and President Axworthy are creating matches our commitment to build opportunities for inner city youth that are long overdue,” said Grower. “We are pleased to be a partner in this project.”
The multi-sport UNITED Health & RecPlex will help alleviate the chronic shortage of indoor recreational space in Winnipeg’s inner city, enhance the UWinnipeg student experience and offer neighbourhood youth and residents unsurpassed recreational opportunities and new health services.
“Ken Grower and the Thomas Sill Foundation are visionaries and community builders who understand that real change happens at the grassroots level, by offering one child the opportunity to play, be safe, and belong,” said Dr. Lloyd Axworthy, President and Vice-Chancellor, UWinnipeg. “Together we are creating a state of the art facility and programming to support a vibrant recreation and health hub for our campus and our surrounding community.”
The RecPlex will accommodate a multitude of sports such as soccer, flag football and track and field, as well as cultural and community events. It will include a large multi-use artificial turf field, a four-lane rubberized sprint track, retractable batting cages, and a community multi-events room (The Thomas Sill Community Multi-Purpose Room). It will connect to a renovated Duckworth Centre via skybridge, where a multitude of health, healing and fitness services will be available.
The Thomas Sill Foundation is a private foundation based in Manitoba that provides encouragement and financial support to Manitoba organizations striving to improve the quality of life in the province. The Foundation is a generous supporter of UWinnipeg programs and most recently provided funding to the Inner City Junior Wesmen Athletics program, which currently allows 250 neighbourhood children to play soccer, basketball, golf and wrestling. Once the new RecPlex is completed, the goal is to double UWinnipeg’s inner city athletic program to accommodate 500 children and youth.
