George Jeffrey Childrens Centre Opens
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George Jeffrey Childrens Centr

George Jeffrey Childrens Centre Opens

by Scott A. Sumner

Thunder Bay Business

 The George Jeffrey Childrens Centre oficially opened their new  $10.5 million, 35,00 sqaure foot state of the art facility dedicated  to enriching the lives of children with disabilities. On hand were  hundreds of people who had some involvment in the project including  the Honourable Minister Michael Gravelle of the Ministry of Northern  Development & MInes and Deb Matthews from the Ministry of Children &  Youth Services.

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   You could just feel the excitement and sense of accomplishment in  the air from all those present.  “ It been a journey on both building  the building side and raising the money on the public side.  Construction was underway  for 1 year,  but the project has been  under way rom the Ministry much longer than that,” said Tom Jackson,  Chair of the Building and Fundraising committee George Jeffrey  childrens Centre who works as an investment advisor at BMO Nesbit  Burns. “ There were two engineering studies which found a previous  old foundation we weren aware of here and some other surprises along  the way.”
  The George Jeffrey  team  had to fundraise $4.5 million which  include the $1 million from the Northern Ontario Heritage fund. “ Our  fundraising has been over 4 years from 3200 donars including the   John Howard Society of $250,00 and the House Draws etc. Tim Hortons 
had just come through with a big donation. Some of it was kids with  their allowance money, some donated chairs,”  said Jackson. “ If you  spend some time with the kids you know how important it is. All  around it is a tremendous accomplishment for the whole community. We 
have groups that will keep helping us. For example we have our  greenspace outside to allow kids to try out wheelchairs walkers etc  in a safe space.”
    Perhaps the most well known face of the project has been  that of  Bob Speer. “ What a day this is. It is just fantastic. It really is a  relief. There were lots of headaches along the way Im telling you but  we had just a great team of people working with us and somehow when 
problems came up we were able to get through them. The result is this  building and the help we are going to give to the children,”  said  Bob Speer. “ There were over 3200  individual donars and that is a  fact. That says so much about Thunder Bay and the region. Prior even 
to coming here I had four phone calls to pick up cheques. I am very  satisfied and happy. The building is fantastic and seeing the pool  with kids in it is something to see. When children are doing things  to help other children it is fantastic The grades 3’s at St Margaret  School had a bake sale to help. Westgate high school basketball  tournament sent all the funds to us. It is just fantastic!”
    I am sure when the group of people on this project first started  it looked like a daunted task, but look at the result. When you put  your heart and soul into something you never know what you can  accomplish!



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