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FOR the Heathcote Football-Netball Club its overdue multi-million dollar facility upgrade at Barrack Reserve was well worth the wait.
And that was reaffirmed on Friday night when the Saints, in conjunction with the City of Greater Bendigo, were awarded AFL Victoria’s Best Community Football Facilities Project for 2018.
The winning project at Heathcote features:
• a redeveloped pavilion that includes a new conference room;
• refurbished wet areas;
• a social room;
• refurbished multipurpose community room;
• revamped time-keepers box;
• storage areas;
• new kitchen/kiosk;
• new netball court;
• upgraded football changerooms; and
• upgraded umpire rooms
The much-needed project was funded through contributions from the City of Greater Bendigo, Heathcote Community Bank, the Community Football Netball Program, Heathcote Lions Club, Heathcote Football-Netball Club and Heathcote Junior Football-Netball Club.
“The club is very excited with the award on Friday night and it’s fantastic for the community,” Saints president Rebecca Dickinson said on Saturday.
“The new facilities have been fantastic for our meals on a Thursday night. We’ve been able to do both senior and junior meals and at times catering for up to 80 people.
“It’s great we can hold our functions back at the club and don’t need to go over the road to the hall any longer.
“We also now have really good viewing facilities… on a cold, wet day you can sit in behind the windows and enjoy it, so there’s really good comfort for families.
“It has been about eight years in the making and I think we now have some of the best facilities in the league. We’ve had a lot of people who have come to the ground this year say how fantastic they are.”
Meanwhile, also among the accolades at Friday night’s AFL Victoria awards function was Bendigo Dockers’ player Mitch Rabl being recognised for earning All-Australian selection at the National Inclusion Carnival.
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