Volunteers have breathed new life into the 100-year-old Hawkestone Community Hall.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the storied hall, located at 3 Allen St., was shut down and plagued with mould issues. Its board of directors moved on, leaving it sitting empty, with no leadership and no direction.
Now, Rebecca Rodgers is the president of the newly established volunteer board of directors. She was instrumental in getting the hall back up and running in January.
Since then, there have been lots of “exciting” meetings and events happening at the hall, she said. Recently, it hosted 160 children and their parents for an Easter egg hunt and celebrations.
“It was amazing,” Rodgers said. “We had a lot of people out and it was really well received.”
The hall will soon host exercise sessions, pickleball and a knitting group. However, the biggest event of the year is slated for Canada Day, when Rodgers wants to bring back the large parades that once put the Oro-Medonte village on the map.
“Those parades got smaller and smaller over the years,” she explained. “Many years ago, we had massive floats and quite a big participation.”
This year, the event will feature a parade and a festival with vendors and a barbecue. The hall will also be highlighting events from Hawkestone’s storied history.
Rodgers says the return of the hall has been “so important” for the community.
“It’s a central gathering place. A community without a central gathering place is just a suburb,” she said.
Without the hall, she says, there isn’t a gathering space in Hawkestone.
“People were driving into Barrie and Orillia for different kinds of recreation,” she said. “The fact that people can now just walk down the road and have a place to meet neighbours and share a common interest gives the community a sense of pride and belonging.”
Rodgers says the most important reason for revitalizing the hall is the community is more diverse now than ever.
“There used to be generations of people who grew up in Hawkestone and stayed here,” she said. “With COVID, there have been so many new, young families that have come to the area, and we need to make sure our programming is meeting the needs of the whole new population.”
There are 15 people on the Hawkestone Community Hall board of directors, and half of them are 40 or younger, which makes Rodgers excited for the future of the building.
“When we get young people seeing the hall as a vital part of our community and they can take pride in it, then that will foster that same commitment back,” she said.
While the Township of Oro-Medonte owns the hall, it’s up to the board of directors to pay for the $15,000 in operating costs each year, and 50 per cent of any capital improvements.
“Plain, old fundraising can burn people out,” Rodgers said. “We are experimenting this year, working to get sponsorships from companies and doing everything by donation instead of generally selling tickets to most events.”
Second session is this Wednesday, April 19th at 6:30. All are welcome. Indoor shoes needed. Paddles provided.
Next week the regular playing times begin.
Mondays 10 - 12 is full. 8-10 am or 12-2 pm have openings.
$40 for 10 weeks!
Email [email protected] for more info
More information, including a list of events at the hall, can be found here. Anyone interested in sponsoring or donating can email Rodgers at [email protected].
