South River partners with CBN rec non profit

Olivia Bradbury, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Town of South River approved a $1,000 community partnership with a not-for-profit organization that provides recreational programming to Conception Bay North.
Aspire Recreation founder, Ryan Gates attended the May council meeting to ask the town to join the organization’s Community Partners Program at a cost of $1,000. The organization is looking to grow the activities it started in South River last year as part of their summer program.
Gates said it has also sent letters to North River, South River, Clarke’s Beach, Bay Roberts, and Spaniard’s Bay asking them to partner as most participants in the organization’s programming are from these communities. Aspire is looking to grow activities it started in South River last year.
“So they would become our focused partners,” said Gates. “People we would dedicate our time to because they clearly want to work with us.”
Aspire Recreation is seeking a similar contribution from those towns—if they decide to join—to create a pool of money with which Aspire Recreation can provide services to them.
“It’s not so much about the money as so much about the commitment,” Gates said, adding that $1,000 is only a fraction of what Aspire Recreation spends during the summer, which usually totals between $10,000 to $20,000.
Councillor David Petten made a motion that South River join Aspire Recreation’s Community Partners Program. This was seconded by Deputy Mayor Melissa Hierlihy. All voted in favour, and the motion was carried.
South River will get a liaison on the Aspire board of directors, from whom they would get regular updates, as part of the partnership.
Aspire Recreation visited the South River council late last year to propose a partnership that would share land and assets, allowing Aspire Recreation to get investors.
The town could not commit to that partnership at the time.