Here is a copy of the letter we sent to the CSB

Sept 1, 2025

We are writing to you to express our deep disappointment that you have decided not to allow us to continue our Wednesday night booking for the St Johns gym which we have had for the past three years.

As you know our club is a non-profit and we provide a free, safe, healthy, and intergenerational sports environment for all our youth members. Last season we had over 60 different youths participate. We feel this is an enormous social good that we believe aligns very much with the stated values of the Catholic School Board. As far as we can tell, this club is unique in the area in providing these benefits to the youth and the community.

However, in order to provide this opportunity to the youth we need about 40 adult members, whose fees pay for the insurance and equipment. These are pretty much fixed costs, so even if we only have one night (Friday), we still need something close to 40 members to operate. That means that we regretfully will have to cancel our youth-free policy and drastically limit the number of youth who can join -- we can only accommodate about 36 active players in the gym at a time. This in turn means that about 40 youth in our area for both Wednesday and Friday will have to find different activities in a region where very few safe, healthy, and free alternatives exist in the winter.

The success of our youth program over the last three years has been phenomenal. Not only has the athletic skill building been remarkable -- last season we had several of our youth players make it to EOSA and one qualify to OFSA -- the intergenerational involvement has been clearly noticeable. We have adult members (about four) who are coaches from high school teams in the area who teach introductory to advanced skills to the youth, and we constantly see the youth passing these skills on to others students. The camaraderie is infectious, whether it's seven-year-olds playing with 85 year-olds, parents playing with their kids, international students learning English, or high-schoolers getting ready for a big tournament, we are all learning to help each other out, and acquiring community building skills that will last a lifetime.

As a venue, St Johns is extremely important to us because unlike some other sports (floor hockey, pickleball, even basketball) badminton requires the high ceilings to play at a level competitive beyond the middleschool level. This means that we have very few options in the area.

We hope that this explanation of our club and why we feel it is important to our community will motivate you to help us find a solution for the social good that we are trying to do.

If there is an opening or another venue that is available please contact us and let us know about it.

Sincerely,

The board of the Perth and District Badminton Club 
Kelly Myers
Matt Wheeler
Jeff Hall
Hope Hodgkinson 
Michael Reeve