For most towns, there’s never enough money to go around for youth sports projects. Up in Canada, though, Minto, Manitoba is experiencing the opposite issue. The southern Manitoba town, which only has about 100 people, recently received a philanthropic gift of $1.5 million from developers with ties to the area, but the money is supposed to be used on youth recreation. As Meagan Campbell writes in Maclean’s, that’s providing Minto some challenges in figuring out how to spend it, given that they only have 41 youth:
“It’s rather daunting right now,” says Lynn Flewitt, chairman of the town’s philanthropic board, which received the first $55,000 annual installment in January. “There’s more coming in November.” The town is one of eight beneficiaries of a fund established by Lloyd and Elsie Campbell, millionaire developers who had family roots in Minto but spent most of their lives in Vancouver.
Lloyd grew up playing hockey and baseball, and before he died in 2005, and Elsie, last year, the couple specified, “these funds are to be used to supply the Minto School District with sports-related equipment and sports day transportation and to supply recreational equipment to maintain playground facilities and sports facilities for junior ball hockey clubs.”
New dirt for the baseball diamond is an obvious first project, but the town needs more expensive ideas. Hockey gear, coaching clinics, gardening spades, violins—suggestions have come from a survey and town meeting. The money could be used to build a gym for the Mini Mustang Corral Daycare, which now uses a former recycling plant for extra space; the gift could pay for a splash pad, or it could put the Minto Skating Centre back in mint condition.
“Hopefully everyone went home and is madly writing down what they want to see,” says Don Joye, a lifetime resident, after the meeting. “We’re kind of the envy of every small town in Manitoba.”
To be clear, this isn’t really a problem for Minto, and there are plenty of things they can spend the money on. In fact, the restrictions are loose enough that potential projects include renovating the town hall floors (because youth play there) and building an all-ages pool. And even if it was limited just to activities directly related to youth, they’d likely be able to find worthwhile ways to spend the money, especially with it coming in small installments over the years.
Still, it’s sort of cool to hear about a town that isn’t struggling to find funds for sports programs, and that’s thanks to the generosity of the Campbells and their affinity for a community they had ties to (Lloyd grew up in Minto, and his family ties there go back to 1846, but he moved away at age 10). Maybe a story like this can help reinforce the importance of donating to local sports causes, too. The youth in Minto probably won’t need much more after this, but there are many elsewhere who could use some help.
