A picture taken of Courtney Sevigny and Marvin Morin during Wednesday's Chase the Ace live stream event at the Cumberland Crossing Inn in Prince Albert. (Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Community projects

Northern Sask. First Nation chases dream of new community hall

Feb 17, 2022 | 3:00 PM

Citing a need to have a place where elders can gather, funerals can be held and where local youth can come to participate in activities, a band councillor for Denare Beach says a new community hall would be well used.

Fundraising efforts were launched in December, and the projected cost is between $900,000 and $1 million. Marvin Morin was elected six years ago and explained to paNOW he’s been petitioning hard for the project and has made multiple grant requests.

“I’ve tried everybody … right to Ottawa and they denied us,” he said.

Denare Beach is a member of the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation and the community includes roughly 30 houses.

Morin explained the reasons given for the denied requests, were the community’s close proximity to Creighton (18 km.) and Flin Flon, as well as the fact the resort village’s community hall, on the other side of Denare Beach, is about a mile down the road.

Court proceedings

'The impact of this trauma will echo for generations': court case surrounding La Ronge woman's death reaches conclusion

4h ago

Going Global

P.A.'s Zablocki named to Team Canada for U18 Women's World Championships

4h ago

Election 2024

Birch Hills staff won't share election decision

5h ago

“But it all takes money which we don’t have,” Morin said.

When band council meetings are held, the current option is a small log cabin that seats at most 15 people. Larger community events must be held in the village.

“We have to use their hall every time there is something like a funeral and it’s $1,000 a day,” Morin said.

To help with the project, fundraising coordinator Courtney Sevigny was approached about doing a weekly Chase the Ace draw, which is licensed by the Indigenous Gaming Regulators. The first draw was held in December.

“Response has been a little slow. Especially with Chase the Ace they wait for the jackpot to get so much bigger before they start playing,” Sevigny said.

(Facebook/ Denare Beach Chase the Ace)

Having no prior experience with the draws, Sevigny explained she did a lot of research and looked to other communities. Onion Lake Cree Nation had been running a similar effort for 30 weeks.

“Their final draws were over a million dollars,” she said.

Half the proceeds from weekly ticket sales go to the fundraising drive and the other half goes to the respective progressive and weekly jackpots.

“We sell between 35 and 50 tickets right now. Obviously we’d like to see that number go even higher,” Sevigny said.

—

nigel.maxwell@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell