Edmonton community league stays alive with successful board volunteer drive

The King Edward Park Community League has been saved after a lack of a board staff threatened to shut it down.

A southside community league will live on after several neighbourhood residents stepped up to volunteer on its undermanned board.

The King Edward Park Community League hosted a special general meeting on Sunday to elect a new board. It had three vacant spots on it and had done a recruitment campaign to drum up interest among people living in the area.

King Edward Park is located between Whyte and 76 avenues from the Mill Creek ravine east to 71 Street.

More than enough community residents attended the meeting, which saw a lineup of people out the front door of the neighbourhood hall.

Heath McLeod, the league’s president, said the league elected a full board of 16 people.

“There was just huge, huge response from people,” McLeod told CTV News Edmonton on Wednesday. “We were getting very close to needing to shut down.”

He said with the full board, the league will be able to hold more events “and focus on what we can do with the buildings that we have” and work on more volunteer engagement opportunities.

Volunteers serve in several community league capacities, including helping with and coordinating events, maintenance of facilities, serving on committees, and fundraising through casinos and bingos.

Laura Cunningham-Shpeley, the executive director of the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues, told CTV News Edmonton earlier this month that she couldn’t recall a time when a league had folded.

Last year, the Twin Brooks Community League paused operations until it could recruit enough volunteers.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Dave Mitchell