The St. John’s Anglican Church hall in Rockwood has received a facelift, largely due to three federal grants totaling close to $43,000.
Last year a group of about five people involved with the hall applied for three different grants, explained Valerie Davidge, project manager.
The grants are from the Enabling Accessibility Funding Street-Community Accessibility Stream through Employment and Social Development Canada; 2017 Canada Summer Jobs Program; and New Horizons Grants for Seniors through Employment and Social Development Canada.
“We didn’t know if we’d get one or the other or two or whatever,” Davidge said.
The group learned it was successful in all three grants in February or March and had until March 2018 to complete the projects, though everything was finished by mid-October.
“As in a lot of small parishes our congregation is dwindling and so the rental in this hall has started to make a big difference to our income every week,” she said.
“So putting this amount of work and effort into it was really worthwhile for the survival of our church.”
Wellington-Halton Hills MP Michael Chong congratulated the parish on the hall improvements.
“I was pleased to learn of the important upgrades … with the assistance of federal funding,” he wrote in a letter to the parish.
“I would like to commend you on successfully completing the upgrades, which will undoubtedly be enjoyed by parishioners and guests alike.”
Accessibility grant
The Enabling Accessibility Funding went into making the hall more accessible. The project proposal was for $23,400 with the government covering two thirds of the cost ($15,600) and the church community, partners and sponsors raising the remaining third ($7,800).
“We were very, very successful in raising it with actually not as much effort as you would have thought,” Davidge said.
“Because we had got some large donations from community members …”
The grant allowed the front of the hall to be completely upgraded with an exterior ramp up to a fully automated accessible door.
Davidge said she also has the necessary equipment to create one accessible parking spot.
Inside the hall an old storage room was transformed into an accessible washroom with an emergency button, reset button, baby change table and enough room for a wheelchair to fully rotate.
“Everything is where it should be,” Davidge said. “It all passed inspection.”
New Horizons grant
The hall also benefited from a second grant for seniors. The New Horizons Grant for Seniors provided 100% funding for a $21,920 kitchen upgrade and update.
The kitchen received new commercial flooring, counter tops, range hoods above the stoves, a pulley system for the concession bar, LED lights, three sinks for dishwashing and one for handwashing, and a dishwasher.
The grant also covered a new hot water tank as well as drywall to cover duct work and replace the tile ceiling.
The hall’s kitchen is often used by the Rockwood Farmers’ Market, during funerals, for party rentals and by film companies who rent the hall for lunches.
Summer jobs program
In addition to the seniors grants, the hall also received a 2017 Canada Summer Jobs Program grant of $5,411, which allowed it to hire two post-secondary school students for seven weeks.
The students repaired the stucco on the sides of the building and painted the hall’s outside walls, the gable, doors and windows. The students also cleaned up the brush from the hall’s perimeter, pruned small trees and removed the hedge at the hall entrance.
Beside the church, the students cleaned up a prayer garden “that was two foot deep in weeds,” Davidge said.
The students pulled up the stone surface and reset each stone in order to remove the weeds.
“It’s something that as a church we never would have had the volunteers to do,” Davidge said.
“It was incredible.”
Renovated hall
Now that the renovations are complete, Davidge said church officials hope the hall is more accessible to the community.
“Our main goal is to provide easier services for seniors and that includes us because … 90% of our congregation … [is] over the age of 70,” she said.
“We have a good portion over the age of 90 and if we can come in and have a nice room like this … and do the things that we do ourselves in here and we’re getting lighter tables, we’ve got lighter chairs now so that we can move them ourselves and we don’t have to look for people to come and move them.”
Davidge hopes the renovations encourage more daytime rentals.
“We’re cost effective for small groups in the community,” she said. “I think this community needs somewhere like this because we’ve got a lot of young families as well as a lot of older ones.”
To book the hall visit stjohnsrockwood.com.
