On November 8, the annual London Sports Hall of Fame Dinner was held in the Carousel Room at the London Fair District.
Included, in the honors, was the Spirit Award recipients who are recognized and honored for their service to the community in the sports field.
Ilderton resident, Lion Brad McGhie was one of those recipients.
In his acceptance speech, he emphasized that he was accepting the award as a member of the Ilderton & District Lions Club, without whose support, the project would not have been started.
However the Medway project was not the only reason he was being honored. The greater Medway community is like a family and he spoke of the importance of family and his passion for community service, first as a teacher for over 35 years, and then as a member of the Ilderton & District Lions Club for 18 years.
As a teacher, in addition to his academic classes, he coached 77 different school teams including wrestling, basketball, football and lastly track and field, with many accomplishments along the way.
In 2005, he, along with three other teachers, began a campaign to upgrade the athletic facilities at Medway. When a Medway family offered to donate a substantial amount of money to the campaign, the momentum took a quick turn.
With the tremendous support of three of his fellow Lions, discussions between the Thames Valley District School Board, Medway High School and the Ilderton Lions commenced. Their experise and determination were pivotal to getting the project to where it is today. It took a lot of meetings and compromises on the part of all parties and this committee representing the Lions Club ensured the positions of all parties were taken into account in the outcome.
Bottom line, the Lions wanted to make sure that the specification met the expectations of the technical experts from the school, that the process was fair and that the project was achievable.
In 2015 procurement documents were prepared and sent to several potential contractors.
During the time discussions were being held, fundraising effort, for the Lion’s share of the overall project costs, was on-going and by the time the tender documents were released, over $ 750,000 had been raised, thanks to two large donors. By contract award, in the spring of 2016, an additional $42,000 had been collected, enough to complete almost all the work.
The story doesn’t end there. There was still had some work to do.
The good news is, at this time, we only need an additional $ 25,000 to finish the project.
All funds collected in this campaign will be directed to Medway High School Athletic Enhancement Projects.
These campaigns are the only way projects, like this one, get done.
We want to complete our funding campaign by January 31, 2019.
For details on how you can help, contact any committee member, Lions Brad McGhie (519-666-3066), Greg Shewfelt ( 5519-859-6224), Murray McDonald ( 519-666-2823) or Bob Mooder ( 519-666-1863), or the principal at Medway High School, Gregory Howard ( 519-660-8418) who was also a student of Lion Brad McGhie.
All donations over $ 25 receive a charitable tax receipt.
Donations of $ 500 – $ 2500 receive a place on a recognition wall at the entrance to the field and all donations in excess of $ 2500 are recognized on a wall inside the school and on the outside wall.
For those who have already answered the call, we thank you.
For anyone who has been thinking of helping, this is the time to act.
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