The current COVID-19 pandemic has hit hard the small towns so Canadian communities are constantly trying to find creative ways to raise the money needed for preserving their rinks, pools and halls. During the pandemic, these communities have started facing all kinds of shortages. The pandemic has blocked all kinds of events, placing the locals in quarantine. Steak dinners, curling bonspiels, and snowmobile derbies have all been canceled.
It’s been two years since the pandemic started. People in smaller communities are adapting and trying to find different ways to generate more money in order to help the local facilities.
Before the pandemic, small towns paid power bills and repairs by hosting fundraisers. In Hodgeville, the community earned money by selling packages of perogies and jars of pickled eggs.
David Fischer, 39, who sits on pretty much every board in town, said:
“We wouldn’t have a rink if there wasn’t an auction. You would never upgrade or repair anything.”
Hodgeville raised more than $600,000 in 10 years for the rink, pool, golf course, hall, and new fire truck.
“We wouldn’t have anything [in the winter] if we didn’t have the rink,” said Fischer.
Even today, during the pandemic, some communities have been allowed to hold these events in order to get the money needed for maintaining the settlement.
