ESTEVAN - Creighton Lodge has started work on an expansion to its kitchen, and it has a fundraiser coming up to help cover the project's cost.
The benefit will happen April 26 at the Power Dodge Curling Centre in Estevan. Creighton Lodge manager Shelly Veroba said last year's event attracted 420 supporters, and this year they want to draw even more.
Cocktails will be served at 5:30 p.m., and a pork and chicken supper, catered by Spilchuk Meats, will be served at 6:30 p.m. Also scheduled are a silent auction and two sets of a live auction. Veroba said they won't have raffles or a 50-50 this year.
The Uncoolas will be this year's entertainment. Veroba said they wanted to go "back to basics" with their featured attraction.
"When this fundraiser first started … we did it with a dinner and then we would have a dance. And so that's what we're going to do this year," Veroba said in an interview with Â鶹ÊÓƵ.
The Uncoolas are a cover band from Moose Jaw, and Veroba said they have over 200 songs in their repertoire. A large area will be available for dancing.
"They play '50s, '60s, '70s and '80s music, right up to today," said Veroba.
As of the morning of April 3, 368 tickets had been sold, and she hopes another six to 10 tables will be purchased.
All proceeds of the event will go to the kitchen expansion. Construction started on April 3 with B&S Construction knocking the bricks off the side of the kitchen/laundry room area. A door will be installed to serve as the entrance/exit to the kitchen. It will go through the laundry room, allowing access for staff and deliveries.
Once it is complete, a new 2,000-square-foot kitchen will be meeting the needs of residents and others. Veroba said an existing door that serves as the exterior exit will become the interior exit. Another door where the current dishwasher is located will be the entrance to the kitchen.
"Once that kitchen is completed, we will have a new 2,000-square-foot kitchen, but we will also increase our dining room space by approximately 2,000 square feet," she said.
The project is expected to be complete by Nov. 1. There will be a two-week stretch during construction when the existing kitchen will be closed, and an outside provider will be bringing in meals.
"Once they tell us that we're allowed to start using our new kitchen, then we will close off the existing dining room, we'll move our dining room into our current lounge, and then we'll enter in through the laundry room into our new kitchen."
The existing kitchen was in need of repair, she said, and it is hard for them to happen unless it is shut down. Five or six years ago, the lodge started talking about how to renovate the kitchen while meeting the needs of more people with their existing kitchen and dining room. Right now, she said the dining room is bursting into the old lounge.
"When you walk into Creighton Lodge in the noon hour, you're walking into … people having dinner out here,"
She pointed out a special-care home in Carnduff is doing a similar project by adding a kitchen to the rear area.
Once the kitchen is finished, the lodge, which has a wait list of 240 people, will be able to offer meals to people who live in the community and need proper nutrition. They could eat in the dining room, or the lodge could also offer frozen meals for pickup, and delivery of frozen or possibly hot meals.
"We currently have some people that pick up meals, and we also currently have some people that come in and eat with us, but we're doing it on a very small scale right now because we're focusing on our kitchen expansion," she said.
Veroba said the lodge is close to the fundraising finish line. The project has a $1.3 million price tag before some of the equipment is purchased, so she believes it will be closer to $1.5 million. They have about $1.2 million in place, and she is hopeful the fundraiser will provide the lodge with a good chunk of revenue to help with the project. Grant applications are also being submitted.
Anyone interested in purchasing tickets can reach Veroba at 306-634-4154.
"We can't say enough about the great community that we live in and how much it has supported Creighton Lodge and the seniors who live here."
