Sean O’Brien plans on rolling up his sleeves this summer in an effort to get a new home ready for young gymnasts in his town.
O’Brien is the facilities director for the Gracia Gymnastics Club in Deer Lake and one of the driving forces behind getting the club’s new home at the town’s fire hall ready for the athletes to embrace.
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The club signed a lease agreement with the Town of Deer Lake in 2017 that would see its 170 athletes move from its current facility in the town’s depot building on Gatehouse Road to a new space in the new fire hall building on Reid’s Lane.
O’Brien said the club was hoping to be moved into its new space last year, but it was quickly realized money would have to be secured before work could be done.
He said the club usually holds two fund-raising initiatives per session to raise money for a move that carries a total price tag in the $150,000 range, but when the club decided to add a third fundraising venture the club was met with upset parents who pushed back against the notion of having to raise more money.
Realizing what the club was doing wasn’t working, the club didn’t want to add any burden to the parents so they eventually had Deer Lake businessman Dave Parsons come on board to handle fundraising for the group because he had some ideas on how the club could raise the funds without ticking off any parents or driving away any of the athletes currently training under the Gracia banner.
The good news is the club has raised over $15,000 to put towards building a new home and O’Brien is excited about work being started next weekend.
The plan is to spend the money they have raised to get the project going and let Parsons go about his business raising the remainder of the money.
The first step in the project is constructing a division wall (120 feet x 16 feet) to separate the club from the other two spaces in the building.
The lumber, drywall and other materials needed for the startup were delivered to the site on Thursday so now O’Brien is focusing his effort on getting people to lend a helping hand in a volunteer role to get the building completed this year.
He is working on scheduling a public meeting early next week for the purpose of getting board members and athlete’s parents around the table to discuss how they can play a role in helping the new home become a reality.
He’s confident he has enough skilled trades required to carry out the work, but he would love to have an extra carpenter or electrician on board to ease the workload.
No matter what happens this week, O’Brien will be ready to roll up his sleeves because he knows how excited the athletes are about having a bigger and better facility to call home.
“I’m going to be in the building whether I’m by myself driving nails,” O’Brien said.
