The Village of Navan came out in full force on Sept. 13 to celebrate the official opening of the community pavilion on the Navan Fairgrounds.
Although the pavilion has been in use for the past six months as a roof for the village’s outdoor rink and as the venue for the livestock competitions at this year’s Navan Fair, the opening ceremony was the first chance for local residents and donors o celebrate Navan’s newest addition.
Most of the people who were there had contributed a portion of the $700,000 that was raised through private donations for the construction of the $1.1 million pavilion.
The rest of the money was donated by organizations such as the Cumberland Township Agricultural Society, the Friends of the Mer Bleue, the Bradley Cup and the Navan Lions Club, as well as corporate donations from M.L. Bradley Ltd., Waste Connections, the Heritage Funeral Complex, Grandmaitre Virgo Evans and the Moore Investments & Insurance Group. The City of Ottawa also contribute a major capital grant to the project and volunteers organized a number of fundraising events.
Representatives from the various companies that built the pavilion were also on hand including C&L Construction, Maurice Yelle Excavation, André Taillefer Ltd., Gloucester Electric, Brulé Enter-prises and Top Grade Enterprises.
The pavilion was the brainchild of Navan resident Daniel Reid and Navan Community Association president Luc Picknell.
On a winter’s night in January 2024, Reid and Picknell, who were both volunteer ice attendants at the outdoor rink, were discussing what a pain it was to shovel the rink every time it snowed,
Half-jokingly, Reid told Picknell that if he agreed to build an outdoor pavilion to cover the rink he would help pay for it. Picknell agreed and soon the process of designing the structure began.
“I told him, ‘If you’re stupid enough to give me money, I’ll do it.’ And he gave me the money so I had to do it,” recalls Picknell.
What started as a modest idea soon turned into a massove structure with a budget of $1.1 million.
The whole thing took a year and a half to build, from concept to completion.
Besides the local residents and donors who attended the official opening, Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and Orléans South-Navan councillor Catherine Kitts were also on hand.
“A project like this couldn’t happen just anywhere. It takes a close knit, special com-munity with incredible community leaders and volunteers who can make things happen and tonight is a celebration of that effort,” said Kitts who also played a key role in seeing the project through to completion.
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