Town holds rec centre groundbreaking ceremony

For details on what the centre will include, read here.

by Lucie Roy
Morinville News Correspondent

The Construction Kick-off Party for the Morinville Community Recreation Facility was held on Wednesday.

The event started with a ceremonial blessing of the land by Elder Ron Arcand from Alexander First Nations, accompanied by Chief Kurt Burnstick at the site of the new facility followed by the ground-breaking ceremony.

The groundbreaking was followed by events at the Morinville Community Cultural Centre, which consisted of drummers from Alexander First Nation performing the Honour song, a formal presentation by the Mayor, words from the Master of Ceremony Gord Putnam, an old circa 1950 video of a hockey game played on the screen, old photos and a display in the foyer of hockey history from the Ray McDonald arena.

A presentation on the history of the Ray McDonald Sports Center, the key milestones of the new facility and preliminary artist rendering of the building exterior and interior was also presented.

The golden shovel that was signed at the site was presented by Mayor Lisa Holmes to Barry Turner, who accepted on behalf of the Morinville Historical and Cultural Society.

Paulette Houle, daughter of Ray McDonald was at the event and spoke of the arena and her father and the work involved. She was also the one who had taken many of the old photos that were displayed.

Less than 100 people were in attendance for the event which included a souvenir program, mini hockey stick and barbecue supper.

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