St. Albert’s 150th anniversary celebrations next year have all the makings of an impressive, yearlong party that’s fitting for a city with such a rich history.
Fortunately, a dedicated team of volunteers has stepped up to the formidable challenge of co-ordinating these efforts to ensure 2011 lives up to its billing. However, enthusiasm alone is not enough and the Rendezvous 2011 committee has many significant hurdles to overcome in the next 17 months.
Led by chair and former councillor Margaret Plain, Rendezvous 2011 unveiled an eye-popping $1.7-million budget that’s needed to co-ordinate 150th anniversary celebrations. The money covers all planning activities since the committee’s formation last year until March 2012. The numbers reveal an extremely ambitious agenda that can’t happen without sizeable contributions from all three levels of government as well as private business and volunteers. Though 2011 is still five months away, St. Albert leaders and residents must ask: have we bit off more than we can chew?
Rendezvous 2011 was given a head start when the city provided $500,000 in seed funding for the celebrations, a sum that will be entirely consumed by administrative costs for staffing, volunteers and office expenses. The committee is looking to the provincial government for another $100,000 in grants and Ottawa for $225,000. The group hopes to raise $400,000 from private sponsors, not counting $171,000 worth of in-kind donations.
The sheer size of dollars that must be raised in such a short window is worrisome and appears, at first glance, overly ambitious. The significance of a sesquicentennial would hopefully work in St. Albert’s favour in terms of securing government grants, though it’s never a guarantee since most of the funding pools tend to be highly competitive.
The $400,000 in sponsorship stands out as perhaps the steepest hurdle given St. Albert’s relatively shallow corporate base and recent history with Servus Credit Union Place. The city still struggles to attract sponsors for that facility and the lack of large businesses in St. Albert is a major factor. Rendezvous 2011 will have to compete against not only that ongoing effort, but fundraising for notable events like the 55 Plus Alberta Winter Games and even local charities and not-for-profits that are already hard-pressed to maintain cash flow. St. Albert deserves to celebrate its success, but not at the expense of organizations that give so much back to the community.
Competing priorities go beyond dollars and cents, as the 150th will require a massive amount of volunteer help. According to its latest quarterly report, Rendezvous 2011 has 53 volunteers in place, well shy of the human resources needed for even one event, such as the picnic in the park, a world record attempt that alone requires 350 volunteers. Plans are in the works to utilize the same volunteer pool as the 55 Plus Games, but that also raises the distinct possibility of burnout, especially with so many events spread throughout the year.
City council is right to start questioning whether everything on the checklist is feasible since it’s the city that is likely the first fallback if fundraising comes up short. If that’s the case, taxpayers deserve more details about how that $1.7 million will be spent, which events and legacy projects are essential and which are nice-to-haves that could be cut if necessary. Council created this committee and it should have the final say on spending at budget time this fall.
In the meantime, we wish Rendezvous 2011 the best of success planning what should be a defining year in St. Albert’s history. Celebrating our community means coming together and there’s no better way to do that than step forward and volunteer. With the economy pointing in a more positive direction, hopefully our business leaders will also step forward and lend assistance, either with dollars or in-kind support. This party will only be as large or successful as we make it, and there’s so much to celebrate.
