25 years after originally being built by volunteers, the Sexsmith Vipers are finally in a place to get new dressing rooms. A $12,500 grant from the County of Grande Prairie, along with other fundraising and sponsorship cash, will allow the renovations and upgrades around the building to begin as soon as possible.
Vipers President Kelly Wilson says the influx of cash couldn’t have come at a better time.
“There has always been new paint and stuff like that, but it’s too small of a space to fit 25 or 30 guys in. The situation that our room was in, it was beyond repair. So we are building a whole new dressing room,”
The Vipers were initially offered grant money from the county in 2016, but Wilson admits the Vipers’ financial state at that point made any renovations a pipedream.
“We were under the understanding the grant deferred, but that isn’t what happened. That’s why I had to go back and stand in front of council and ask them to reinstate it,”
Wilson says the total renovations needed will cost around $100,000. No timeline has been set as to when the renovations will begin.
