Lack of volunteers forces Twin Brooks Community League to close outdoor rink

A sign outside the Twin Brooks Community League in Edmonton calls for volunteers. (CTV News)

People living in Edmonton’s Twin Brooks neighbourhood have been cut off from services offered by its local community league, including the outdoor rink.

The Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues (EFCL) says a lack of volunteers forced the board to cut the services.

An urgent call for volunteers first went out in early December, a call that went unanswered.

“Not a situation that we’re happy about,” Laura Cunningham-Shpeley of EFCL said. “Neither is the league.”

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Without volunteers to join its board of directors, the Twin Brooks Community League in south Edmonton was forced to pause operations in mid-January.

“There’s a lot of community offerings that may not have necessarily affected us, but that were available to seniors, different programs, that kind of thing, which was great,” said Twin Brooks resident Sherry Roy.

“I think it’s a big loss, because there’s a lot of young families in the neighbourhood.”

EFCL, which supports all 162 community leagues throughout the city, is now temporarily in charge.

“We’ve been able to hire a facility manager and contract who’s making sure that the hall will be available. programs will be started up again, in the next week or two,” Cunningham-Shpeley said.

But the padlock preventing access to the outdoor rink won’t be coming off, at least not for the rest of the skating season.

“Things like [rentals], we’re able to manage. But just with the rink on top of it, it was too much,” Cunningham-Shpeley noted.

“It is kind of disappointing in a community that’s been around this long to have no access to it,” Roy said.

Arrangements were made for people from the community to access facilities and programs at neighbouring community leagues, including their outdoor rinks.

The situation for Twin Brooks is one EFCL says rarely happens.

With people now seeing the impact of losing their community league, EFCL is hopeful people will reconsider volunteering.

“If you have a friend and you want to do it together, there’s all sorts of ways that we can do this to make sure it isn’t a huge burden on people and is a really fulfilling experience to meet your neighbors and really make great things happen in the community,” said Cunningham-Shpeley.

A special general meeting aimed at re-establishing the board will be held on April 1.