Today's Portage Rotary Club Luncheon took place outside at Rotary Republic of Manitobah Park, with guest speaker Portage Regional Recreation Authority (PRRA) general manager David Sattler. Sattler outlined all of the upgrades to the park that PRRA has made with Rotary Club funding through the years.

David Sattler presenting to the club"The first one is the picnic shelter that we just had lunch in," says Sattler. "That was a group effort with the Rotary Community Foundation, the ad hoc ball committee, and then Winter Games Legacy from 2010. Some of the other things include the new soccer nets when we re-configured the youth soccer fields back (I think it was) in 2015, football uprights that went up, and putting up water to diamonds seven and eight. That was a big one."

He notes there were also many renovations at the hard ball diamonds in the last two years with fence work, new dugouts, infield work, as well as the batting cage that was installed. Sattler explains Rotary funds are used for a lot of different projects in a very meaningful way.

"To date they've given us $40,000 of the $50,000 they committed back in 2015," continues Sattler. "But they've also helped us leverage about another $30,000 or $38,000 in grants that we wouldn't have been able to get without that funding. The support from Rotary is huge when it comes to Rotary Republic Park. I can say without a doubt that the investments that have been made over the last few years likely wouldn't have been made without that support."

Rotary president Travis Foster shares what it's like to supply funding for places like Rotary Republic Park.

"We're ecstatic to see the upgrades that have happened over the last couple of years," says Foster. "That's part of the mandate of Rotary -- youth. You can't say more about youth and activity than you can here at the park. There's everything to do here. That's where we want our money to be going."

Today the Rotary club presented a cheque for $10,000 to PRRA, finishing off their $50,000 commitment from three years ago.