Westmount lacrosse gets a boost from Bell

“The program is called the Bell Community Sports Fund. It’s affiliated with True Sport, which is an organization that promotes fair play, equal opportunity and participation,” said lacrosse coach Kyle Peterdy, 24, who studies education at McGill.

“We got a heads-up that this existed and we applied via their website last fall. We got news of the grant in December and we ended up getting the cheque in January and we’re looking into how to use it now.

“We’ve got some great plans for the money.”

A major part of those plans, Peterdy said, is to certify Westmount’s lacrosse coaches.

“The big thing is the certification and (this money) has saved everyone from having to pay for it themselves,” he said.

Peterdy and his fellow coaches are mostly McGill lacrosse players and they see this as a chance to give back to the community.

“Coaching lacrosse is unpaid, and it’s mostly my teammates at McGill who are coaching. We never would have been able to have played ourselves if not for volunteers, and now having our people able to be trained as coaching volunteers will only help us enrich the experience for the kids.”

Westmount Recreation’s Steve Robaire is excited to see the potential the program has now that it has secured some extra funding.

“We’re going to get some nets, some goalie equipment and some other things that the City of Westmount can re-use each year,” Robaire said.

“The idea is for the kids to be able to use our stuff instead of having to buy new equipment. This way, the kids can try different positions and get more into the game.

“It’s the same principle as in hockey. We supply specialized equipment like the longer poles defencemen use or goalie equipment.”

Robaire pointed out that the program could have hit a wall without the money.

“As the kids are getting better each year, and this is our third year, they’re starting to need some better equipment to match,” he said.

“The program had 80 kids last year which grew from just under 30 the year before. This year we’re hoping for about 120, so it’s growing each year. This will really help.”