The Westlock and District Community Hall is hosting its annual fundraising dinner and dance Dec. 9, bringing Alberta-based country band Renegade Station (formerly known as Domino) to the stage.
This won’t be the band’s first appearance in town as they were the headlining act during the Boston Pizza Cup Barn Dance Feb. 8-12.
Hall manager Colleen Taylor said last year’s event catered to around 300 people and raised $18,000 for the hall.
Past fundraisers have enabled the 25-year-old hall to replace the flooring, repaint its smaller room and replace an aging water heater.
Given the age of the building, more repairs and replacements for equipment are expected down the line, which is what this year’s fundraiser will be for, as well as cost-saving improvements to the building itself.
“We recently upgraded the lighting in the small room, lobby and kitchen with LED lights to save power. Now we’re raising money so we can do the large room,” said Taylor. “We’re hoping to paint the large room as well.”
Taylor said the hall society is hoping to raise enough to keep ahead of maintenance issues and stay out of the red.
We were in the hole many years ago, but we’re doing good now.”
There’s almost always something at the hall. Over the Dec. 2-3 weekend it hosted a Christmas trade show, while in January is the Malanka! Ukrainian Christmas show.
Every March Youth for Christ and Rainbow for the Future fill the hall and on Tuesday and Thursdays Taekwondo classes are held in the building for roughly nine months of the year.
Another feature the society has been working on is the new website, which launched in 2015.
Current bookings can be view in real time so anyone interesting in booking can plan ahead.
“There’s lots of new pictures and a 3-D virtual tour, so people can see the building inside,” said Taylor. “We’ve been trying really hard to promote and upgrade it the best that we can.”
Tickets for the Dec. 9 show are $60 and can be purchased from the hall or at Clancy Graphics. Contrary to a poster that has been circulating around Westlock, the phone number for the hall is 780-349-8794.
