By Mikayla van Loon
Mount Evelyn’s sporting clubs and community will be the grateful recipients of the largest Bendigo Community Bank Mount Evelyn grant ever made.
Community Bank chairman John Stroud made the announcement on Thursday 1 December that the new pavilion build will receive $250,000 towards the internal fit out.
Mount Evelyn Sports and Community Hub (MESCH) acting president Mal Darke said this grant would do wonders for the collective to achieve the desired outcome for not only the four clubs but the community too.
“This amazing, very generous grant, it’s very much appreciated…It will really enable us to appoint the club rooms to a really high standard, which is what we wanted to do,” he said.
“It also gives us money to fit out the community room as well. So the money is not only going to the clubs but also to the community which is really important.”
The grant will ensure there are usable facilities like a kitchen, change rooms and event or meeting space for both the use of the community and the clubs themselves.
“We’re already very privileged to be building these fantastic rooms that when completed will have the capacity to cater to both male and female participation at the same time with four change rooms,” Mr Darke said.
“Which is really one of the first pavilions in the valley to have that capacity and it really recognises the participation and the diversity of participation that we’ve fostered down here at Mount Evelyn over the last probably 10 years. So it’s absolutely fantastic.”
Providing the largest grant the bank has ever given, Mr Stroud said himself and the board of directors are proud to be part of this next chapter for the recreational reserve.
“The reserve here in Mount Evelyn has a big impact on the community. It covers a whole lot of users, sport and recreation,” he said.
“Our mantra is to give back to the community…so this fits really well with what we’re doing and we wanted to be part of the build because it’s significant…we want it to be part of our history and we want to be part of the legacy of the build.”
With over a century’s worth of history, the Mount Evelyn Recreation Reserve has seen a fair few changes from a picnic ground with the onset of football in the 1930s, then cricket and eventually juniors and women’s sport.
“The reserve has a very rich history that goes back over 100 years…they used to come up in the old days in the horse and buggies. Then the football club started in 1931, followed by the cricket club followed by the junior footy club,” Mr Stroud said.
“So that was all a fairly long time ago but in the last 10 to 15 years this reserve has really exploded in terms of recreational users.”
The reserve has now entered its next phase with state of the art, modern infrastructure which both Mr Darke and Mr Stroud said will be a great addition to Mount Evelyn.
“There really are no other modern facilities the community in Mount Evelyn have access to so it’s going to be really good to see the community get down here and use it at times when the clubs aren’t using it,” Mr Darke said.
“It’s the biggest bit of public building we’ve had in a long time in Mount Evelyn and surrounding areas, so we wanted to be part of that. We look forward to seeing it finished and seeing all the people using it,” Mr Stroud said.
Yarra Ranges Council Mayor Jim Child said it was wonderful to see this project nearing the final stages after many years working on getting it to this point.
“How it is there today is amazing because you’ve got to think about how we got there. You’ve got three levels of government funding and with today’s announcement, we’re going to see how the community is behind it as well with this funding from the community bank,” Mayor Child said.
“To look across there and see what this building is going to provide not only for the football club, the cricket club but as a community hub as well is just amazing.”
