Audacity Donors: Unbound

When Mr. Scott Spurgeon first joined the school, there was no place for students to work out, run track, long jump or dance. There was only one playing field (the backfield was then still piles of “shrubs, trees, and dirt”) and one gymnasium. Practice space was sparse, and teams suffered as a consequence. The athletics program was growing, but had nowhere to grow in to.

As the Director of Athletics, Mr. Spurgeon had some major challenges to overcome. Finding the space and time for all teams to practice was an enormous feat, but he persisted. And then, over time and with our families’ support, these spaces came. Families gave and facilities got built; first an international sized soccer pitch, then a fully equipped fitness centre, a track and field suite, and a specialty gym for movement and dance.

We’ve grown a lot, but we still have some growing to do.

Nineteen years later, Mr. Spurgeon still faces the same challenges which plagued him back then. Namely, space. Meadowridge has always had “good” facilities, and support and coaching and spirit in spades, but we still don’t have the gym space we need. Through creative (and sometimes chaotic) scheduling, Mr. Spurgeon still finds time for all our teams to practice. A morning bus lets teams practice before school, afterschool practices get snuck in before games, and in-school practices were introduced during Creativity, Activity, and Service (CAS) blocks. These temporary fixes work, but Mr. Spurgeon is anxious for a new gymnasium.

He hopes families will join him and help give our students some much-needed gym space – just like families before them did.

With a new gym, teams will have more frequent and predictable practices; students will have more choices to choose from and chances to get involved; and everyone – students, parents, staff and faculty alike – will have a new space to gather. Mr. Spurgeon is confident in what a new gym will bring. He has seen for himself the difference some space can make. Like when we added a new fitness centre. Mr. Spurgeon saw classes trickle in, then teams and students and even staff. Soon he saw students using the space before and after school, all on their own, and not because they “had to,” but because they had learned the value of a healthy lifestyle. Or when we built the backfield.

Mr. Spurgeon saw teams flock to it straightaway. He saw players get better, comradery grow stronger, and teams – for the first time in our school’s history – consistently go to provincials. The rewards were “amazing,” Mr. Spurgeon remembers, and they are why, today, he chose to give to Audacity, the Campaign for Meadowridge School. “There was a time I didn’t think we’d have the fitness centre or the back field,” Mr. Spurgeon reflects, “but then we did, again and again.” Now, he hopes families will join him and help give our students some much-needed gym space – just like families before them did. Mr. Spurgeon knows that it will happen. To grow our school, it takes a community “unbound” in generosity and potential. It takes Meadowridge.