The Fransoo family donated the building to BGC Battlefords. (Submitted/BGC Battlefords)

By Julia Lovett-Squires

BGC Building

BGC Battlefords gifted new building

Sep 3, 2024 | 4:24 PM

Children of the Battlefords will one day have more space to play thanks to a donation from a local family.

“It was completely unexpected and out of the blue,” said Nicole Combres, BGC Battlefords executive director.

“The surprise and the shock when we heard the good news was pretty intense, yeah, we’re just feeling all sorts of grateful.”

The donation of a building – the Lifeways Integrative Wellness – and located at 301, 114th Street was given to the non-profit by Gilles and Martina Fransoo last week and the organization plans to consult the community as to how it may be used.

“The work that BGC Battlefords does on a daily basis follows closely in our desire to help the youth in our community achieve and exceed their dreams and goals,” Gilles said in a press release.

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Combres said at the moment, BGC Battlefords are “excited to continue to partner” with Lifeways Integrative Wellness.

“The secondary space…will probably be a special program site for us,” she said, noting the original building will still be used for its office space and drop-in programming.

In addition to their future uses, they also see the building as being home to community groups.

“We won’t move over there; it’ll be a secondary programming location for us,” Combres said.

There have yet to be any formal plans made as to which programs will be included in the new building as it will take time to establish the space.

“We have a number of special programs such as our lacrosse program, our soccer program, we have a music program, a hip-hop dance program,” she said, noting they are currently offered at different locations including the Nationswest Field House.

“We are exploring the option of having some of those special programs be hosted at that site so that all of our programming is happening in-house,” she said.

“We then have the ability to offer programming to more kids when we have more space.”

The organization has been operating in the Battlefords for 48 years and Combres said their success is due to the community.

“This donation just reaffirms that once again that there are really, really generous, kindhearted people that make up the Battlefords,” she said.

Meanwhile, a grand opening will be planned at a later date once more consultation with the community has been done to help determine how they “can best set that space up for success” as it may be in need of renovations.

“We’re really, really grateful to Gilles and Martina for this donation and just to allow us to continue to offer the programs and services that we have and allow us to increase the quality of our programming and be able to serve more kids.”

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julialovettsquires@pattisonmedia.com

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