Cindy Stephen • for the Calgary Herald
New home builder Trico Homes, founded in 1992 by Wayne Chiu of Calgary, has renewed its sponsorship agreement for a second 10-year term with the Trico Centre for Family Wellness in the city’s southeast.
The recreation facility on Bonaventure Drive S.E., next to Southcentre Mall, first opened in January 1983 as the Family Leisure Centre. As a non-profit organization, Trico Centre operates as a partnership with 34 community associations in the surrounding area.
Trico Homes first approached the Family Leisure Centre in 2008 with financial support, eventually becoming name sponsor and benefactor in 2012.
Trico Centre’s acting general manager, Sheryl McGie, says they are grateful to have Trico Homes as the naming sponsor.
“Our two businesses align. We have a lot of the same values such as commitment to community. They’re a really good partner and wonderful to work with. We appreciate their support,” she says.
Glenda Schwartz, director of marketing for Trico Homes, calls Trico Centre much more than a recreation facility.
“It brings people together from all ages and backgrounds and encourages community connections through fitness and wellness activities. It is amazing to see how big this tight-knit community has grown, and we look forward to supporting family recreation and healthy lifestyles in Calgary for another 10 years,” she says.
Trico Centre serves hundreds of thousands of Calgarians a year, including 2,200 members, 24,000 program users, 50,000 drop-in users and individuals who rent various aspects of the facility. It’s home to the Bow Valley Hockey Society (minor hockey) and the FLC Seniors, the largest older-adult organization in Western Canada.
Trico Centre offers a full roster of recreational and fitness programming including the Trico Cares Program, which ensures all children can participate in swimming and skating lessons through partnerships with Jumpstart, KidzFirst, KidSport and Kids Up Front. A partnership with the City of Calgary provides fee assistance to low-income families.
It also houses tenants such as a physiotherapist, a math and reading tutor, a nursery school, dental hygiene clinic, massage clinic and a juice bar.
The facility itself has two hockey rinks, an aquatic centre with a waterslide, a gymnasium, fitness studios, social space and rooms available for rent by community groups.
The Trico Centre has an annual operating budget of $6 million, McGie says.
“We take Trico’s sponsorship funding and apply it to our capital costs and all the different areas that really improve our services to the members,” she says. “When they first became our sponsor, we were going through renovations. We added the second arena, changed the parking lot and improved the front entrance. They were a major part of that.”
Future improvements include a new ammonia plant and compressors for the ice rink and possibly a new gymnasium, renovations that are still a few years out, McGie says.