The Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame is chipping away at plans to put more of its memorabilia on display.
The national facility relocated from Centennial Community Centre to a new home in Anvil Centre in 2014. As part of that move, the hall of fame agreed to provide the city with $40,000, plus five annual installments of $30,000 for a total of $190,000 for building the space in the new civic centre.
“It’s a magnificent building. We have a fabulous museum there and it’s a great venue,” said Tony Glavin, chair of the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame’s board of governors. “We did it in partnership with the city.”
Last fall, the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame approached the city about renegotiating “a redirection” of funding, which would allow the remaining funds to be redirected toward capital projects in the hall of fame instead of the city. In January, Glavin presented the city with a cheque for $30,000, bringing the total contribution up to $130,000.
By redirecting the remaining $60,000 to capital improvements, Glavin said the hall of fame will be able to make some much-desired improvements.
“We did a survey of people who have come into our facility and also gone onto our website and we got a tremendous response. The two main responses were: what a beautiful facility and where is all the stuff?” he said. “That was a real gripe from the lacrosse community – where has all the stuff gone?”
Glavin said the facility desparately needed some new cabinetry to showcase some of the hall of fame’s collection and, with the city’s assistance, was able to get that done prior to the Canadian Hall of Fame’s annual banquet in November.
“People were very impressed and very happy to see we have more displays,” he said. “We have two new cabinets and we are planning two more cabinets.”
Along with putting more items on display, Glavin said the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame recently relaunched its website and is continuing to work on integrating the hall of fame’s website and facility.
“We are looking forward to seeing some great progress this year, given that we have freed up these funds,” he recently told city council. “We will be able to really move forward with some great changes in the coming year or two. I think you’ll notice a considerable difference to what we have in there.”
Coun. Chuck Puchmayr said the city is fortunate to have the facility in New Westminster, as some people have wanted to see it relocated back east.
