Celebrating 15 Years of Community!
March 5, 2026
Celebrating 15 Years of Community!
Our Centre was built as a legacy of the 2011 Canada Winter Games. After hosting the games in February 2011, we opened our doors to the community on March 5. Today we celebrate 15 years of continuous healthy active living, community engagement, and sport participation.
Thank you to all of our stakeholders, partners, members, guests and staff for being part of our community all these years. Your inspiration and dedication truly encompass our values of respect, communication, community, service excellence and leadership.
We would like to give a special thank you to all of our staff who are celebrating 15 years with us!
- Carla Alderson
- Gary Furlong
- John Doyle
- Kenny Boudreau
Let’s take a look back at some of the community events, partnerships and accomplishments we have made over the past 15 years…
2011 | Community Welcome
Shortly after the Canada Games ended, the doors officially opened to the public welcoming people of all ages, abilities, and interests; we saw over 720,000 visitors, a great start to the community driven Centre.
2012 | Proven Success and Sport Participation
In 2012, the Centre started to see success in the facility. There were over 4,800 memberships sold and 300,000+ pool visits. It was truly encouraging to see the community enjoy such a beautiful facility.
We also had the privilege of welcoming the Toronto Raptors to the Field House. A Raptors Skills Clinic was held, welcoming 200 youth to learn new skills and drills. The partnership with the Raptors assisted in sending youth to our Summer Camps through a donation of $5,000.
2013 | The Gift of Nourishment
We hosted our first annual Food Run in 2013. The Food Run was an ongoing event for 6 years. Our staff, members, and community members participated in educational lessons led by nutritional, health and lifestyle experts leading up to race day. Food and cash donations were collected for Feed Nova Scotia. Nourishment is the greatest gift.
2014 | Physical Literacy and Try It Day
To continue our commitment to supporting health, wellness, and athlete development in our community, we began our journey in adapting more of our programs to the Canadian Sport For Life Model (CS4L) in 2014. Physical Literacy provides our community members with knowledge and education about physical activity. This allows our community to be active for life.
“Physical literacy is the motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge, and understanding to value and take responsibility for engagement in physical activities for life.”
– The International Physical Literacy Association, May 2014
We also hosted a Try It Day. In November 2014, the community was invited to experience new sports and challenge their physical literacy.
2015 | Happy 5 Years!
In 2015 we celebrated 5 years of successful operation and increased community engagement. Over 500 community members and staff helped make our celebration special. We held free admission, story swapping, refreshments and the chances for guests to win Facility memberships.
2016 | New Years Eve Extravaganza
We rang in the New Year together as a community. Over 650 of our closest community members celebrated the new year during an active afternoon. Members, guests, and staff enjoyed OnTree ziplining, bouncy castles, a fundamental movement skills zone, our aquatics inflatable course, snacks, and a photo booth. We decided to end 2016 and start 2017 off by what we know best, being active.
2017 | Connecting Music and Sport
In 2017 we created a partnership with Debut Atlantic, to offer pop-up musical performances in our lobby. The performances range in a variety of genres, talents, and instruments. Music and sport both have the ability to connect, inspire, and motivate. To this day we continue this partnership where members and guests can stop by and listen, relax and get motivated for their next workout.
2018 | Affordable Access and 2-week Pass
In 2018 we partnered with the Keshen Goodman Public Library to increase the community’s accessibility to our Centre by creating the 2-week Access Pass, allowing access to all areas of our Centre. This program was designed so community members could access our facility barrier free. Because of its proven success, our board decided it was an essential program for the community and has continued to support it.
We also created our Membership Fee Assistance Program in 2018. This program was created because we believe that everyone should have the opportunity to take part in fitness and recreation activities. The program supports qualifying individuals/ families by covering 50% of their annual membership fees.
2019 | Feed Your Soul
To help put more than 160 meals on the table for Nova Scotians, we hosted a Feed Your Souls Event. In 2019, our Outdoor Yoga Event brought members and staff together to participate in a beginner-friendly yoga practice, with community members donating cash and non-perishable food items for Feed Nova Scotia.
2020 | Happy 10 Years!
In 2020 we celebrated 10 years of heathy active living and continued success. This year we took a walk down memory lane with old photos, but we couldn’t celebrate with all of our members, guests, and staff due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To continue our commitment to our community, healthy active living happened at home. We compiled tricks, tips and recommendations to help users form healthy habits at home. We provided virtual workouts, meditation exercises, activities to do with family and virtual fitness challenges. The fitness challenges offered workout plans, and live fitness classes. We made it through the lockdowns together and came out stronger on top.
2021| Healthy Living Seminars
We continued our commitment to healthy active living while the COVID-19 restrictions eased. To support our community, our Fitness Team conducted Healthy Living Seminars. These seminars included engaging 60-minute chats about what it means to live a healthy active lifestyle, topics covering exercise, diet, and mindfulness to local organizations.
2022 | It Happens Here
In 2022, we wanted to highlight our community! Everyone has different reasons for visiting us but the collective dedication to healthy active living is what creates the positive atmosphere inside our Centre. We showcased all ages and abilities from the aspiring athlete, to the Olympian/Paralympian. Each story focused on what healthy active living looks like for them – It Happens Here series.
2023 | Community Support
We opened up our space for residents affected by the large wildfire in Tantallon. We paused our regular activities to support our community in a time of need. There were many volunteers that helped turn our Centre into an evacuation Shelter with The Canadian Red Cross, The Salvation Army, and the Disaster Animal Response Team of Nova Scotia.
2023 also marked the fourth year we partnered with the Fairview Food Pantry Project to run a food drive. This food drive helps to address the high rates of poverty among children and seniors in parts of the Clayton Park and Fairview neighborhoods.
Supporting our community and meeting their needs is part of our commitment to healthy active living.
2024 | All Things Fitness
Our Fitness team began sharing their expertise beyond in-person training. We created informative videos, highlighting tips and tricks to get the most out of your workout and keeping your body happy. We shared these tips inside the Centre on our TV screens and on our social media channels.
We also created two fitness challenges for members and guests to bring physical activity and fun together. We launched Fitness Bingo to encourage members to try new Drop-in Fitness Classes and a Spell your name challenge to try out unique exercises.
2025 | Happy 15 Years of Community
This year, we’re celebrating 15 amazing years with you all. Soon we will have a new name, but we’re still the same community centre that will continue to celebrate and support sport, fitness & our amazing community!