Bellamy Foundation Gala & Golf raises $250K, theatre phase one fully funded

For the new home of the arts, the arts came to Bonnyville in a major way this past weekend. 

The Clayton Bellamy Foundation for the Arts will add roughly another $250,000 into the fundraising pot in making the Strathcona Performing Arts Centre a one-of-a-kind for the area. 

The live auction – which included selling the likes of country stars Dallas Smith, Dan Davidson, Jason McCoy, and Mike Plume, to athletes Tanner Boser, Justin Fontaine, Jon Kalinski, to personalities Husband Chad and Vinnie from Boom 95.3 to golf with you – to the trips and items that were on display, auctioneer Danny Hooper was able to help raise $115,000 alone from that portion. 

The silent auction also had a heckuva haul, with $25,000 coming in on those alone. 

Golfers braved the smoke on the links Saturday to complete the Gala & Golf event on a high. 

Another surprise for those in attendance was the $10,000 from the Bonnyville Oilmen’s Society to the Bellamy, presented by Ray Rivard. 

“It’s always great to come to communities and watch how they all come together in events like that and raising money for a good cause,” Dallas Smith told Lakeland Connect.

“Hearing that was the first one. I just thought oh, it was one of the best ones I’ve seen.”

Phase one can begin 

While still relishing the success of the event, there is no rest for the board, as this fundraising total allows them to fully pay for the first phase of construction costs at $1.4 million.

That means that work will begin any time now, says Bellamy Foundation vice-president Lise Fielding.

“So we have that now. Then we’re really not going to be taking much of a rest, because we’re now going to be having to fundraise the next million dollars,” Fielding told Lakeland Connect.

The initial phase includes the foundations, the reinforcing steel, the concrete formwork and slabs, rough carpentry — the nuts and bolts of the building. They hope that portion to be completed by February 2024.

Phase two will see more of the polish come together with the facility next year.

What is also confirmed is that this Gala & Golf event is no one-off.

Attendees can mark their calendars for Friday of the Labour Day long weekend once again as this becomes an annual affair and Danny Hooper is already booked to return.

Not only is this event for the second phase of fundraising, but the other initiatives they produce which keep the arts alive in Bonnyville.

“We always have in mind two things, is the bursary, either make the $2500 bursary bigger or make more of them, which ever works best, but that growth is something that we definitely plan on,” said Fielding.

“The second thing that we would always want to fundraise for is so that we could make i’s affordable for people to come to these high price artists that we’re wanting to attract. We will be able to bring in some really big names with Clayton’s contacts. But we want it to be affordable for the public.

“We will need to have some offsetting fundraising to be done there, because there’s only so much that people can pay to go and see somebody when you have a 340 seat theater.”

Madeline Janz was the latest recipient of the bursary. 

On behalf of the Foundation, Fielding thanked everyone for contributing to the event and making it such a success.

“People were really supportive for this. And we really thank them from the bottom of our heart. We will make this as quick as we can. It will be finished by next year. So we just have to make sure that we’re knocking on more doors and applying for more grants, and we’ll get there.”