Youth HQ recently announced the newest addition to Camp Alexo, Eagle’s Nest Rotary Lodge, along with the completion of the Camp Alexo Master Plan.
“We are excited to share the exciting news about the completion of the Camp Alexo Master Plan. The Camp Alexo Master Plan is a $2.4 million project that ran for three years, involving 1,060 caring volunteers who donated over 38,000 hours, and garnered heavy support from community businesses, supporters and donors,” said Kris Fleckenstein, board chair of Youth HQ.
He said in order to address aging assets and a need to increase capacity, the board developed a master plan for Camp Alexo to ensure the continued support of children and youth well into the future.
The initiative, he said, could not have been started without the support of the Sheraton Celebrity Dance Off Committee, who selected their organization as the benefactor in 2014 where more than $400,000 was raised towards the current project. This year, with pressure from Health and Occupation, the board was faced with making a choice to invest in extensive repairs with the existing lodge or to undertake building a whole new lodge.
“Through the incredible support from Eagle Builders, Red Deer Rotary and private donors to get the lodge kick-started the board made the decision to undertake building a new lodge,” said Fleckenstein.
The master plan, which was divided into three phases, started four years ago and is now 90% finished. The first phase involved a lot of the new buildings, renovations and upgrades. Phase two involved the infrastructure including road improvements, and the final phase includes the lodge itself, which they are working to complete with the last remaining bit of fundraising.
John Johnston, fund development manager with Youth HQ said the lodge will act as the main dining area and hub of the camp.
He said they were also able to move their capacity of the building up, which means they can serve more children throughout the summer.
“The new lodge actually doubles our original footprint from 2,400 to 4,800 square feet,” he said.
Also in attendance at last week’s announcent were board directors, stakeholders and donors who Johnston couldn’t thank enough for helping to make the project happen.
“This agency has now got something our community can be proud of and we can service kids well into the future with this amazing facility,” he said.
Unable to thank just a select number of donors, he said the list of supporters goes on and on.
“We’re blessed in Red Deer to be in a community that really cares about its community. We went out there and we asked for support and I can’t even recall a person who said no.”
The grand opening of the new Eagle’s Nest Rotary Lodge will take place June 24th from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The lodge is located 70 kms west of Rocky Mountain House.
