One of Calgary’s best qualities and what sets it apart from its contemporaries is nobody volunteers like its citizens. Good thing too, because with Special Olympics Canada Winter Games in 2024, a potential 2030 Commonwealth Games bid, and too numerous to list here day-to-day opportunities, there is going to be a bonanza of chances for those of us who want to give back and represent our city at the same time. I will even give a little plug that you should watch this space in the coming weeks for some cool animal-related projects that are going to need some help.
I know that I speak to a lot of sport-minded individuals with these posts and on the podcast and today I want to take moment to introduce you to one of the most important volunteer organizations in Calgary that can use some help and new faces.
The Calgary Booster Club has been serving our city for almost 70 years not only chronicling Calgary’s sports history but more importantly recognizing the members of our community who have competed, coached, organized, and recorded our legacy. Nobody has stood up and championed high school athletes, and amateur athletes in our area more loudly or longer than this amazing group.
From their own website here is their work in their words:
For decades the Calgary Booster Club has supported and recognized programs that showcase the best of Calgary’s athletes and sports leaders.
This has been accomplished through fundraisers such as the Sportsperson of the Year Dinner, casinos, and bingo.
This has resulted in such worthwhile ventures such as the Art Smith Amateur Sport Legacy Fund for high-performance athletes and the Bob Freeze Sports Grant for athletes 16 and younger.
A brand new fund is now upon us – the Calgary Booster Club Sport Legacy Fund – created to provide stable future grants, scholarships, and recognition programs to support our very best prospects. This new fund was created in conjunction with the Parks Foundation Calgary and will provide tax receipts for donors and ensures that Calgary’s sport legacies will thrive for decades to come.
So here is the ask they need a little bit of everything, volunteers for events, people to stick their hands up to be board and committee members and help with fundraising. This is the same ask for so many groups in the community.
But I have an ask too, something happened along the way, and we missed a generation working on behalf of the Calgary Booster Club. The world has changed over time, and I think it is safe to say that some of the institutional service clubs have lost that ability to fill their ranks the way they did 30 or 40 years ago. I am looking for those who value our city and its sports heritage, but maybe have never tried to be part of a service club or didn’t know that it existed to step up.
The work has never been more important and there are all kinds of room for new ideas and new ways to be caretakers of sports history.
If it’s not you maybe, it’s somebody you know please pass along the information and the invite.
I have no affiliation with the Calgary Booster Club other than hosting events for them, and I do that because it’s a tradition that many media heroes and mentors in Calgary did before me.
I love the passion that Don Buchignani brings to every meeting and event for the Booster Club, and Jon Jewell for his tireless efforts, but they want to add to the group’s capacity. These are just a couple of names of the core that has kept this group alive and relevant, but they aren’t the only ones.
If being part of recognizing and recording our most recent and upcoming sport’s history appeals to you please reach out and join a group that would love to have you.