Dave Schwandt asked for help, and the Shuswap responded.
At the beginning of April, the Salmon Arm Demo Derby and Swap Meet organizer and reality TV personality Dave Schwandt reached out through social media, explaining critical work was needed on the grandstand at the city fairgrounds, where the derby is held. He said the June 14 and 15 event "will not proceed if this doesn't happen."
"It was just something that needed to be done," said Schwandt. "Without the bleachers being done there was no derby."
Scwhandt was nervous when he put out the call for help, but the community quickly settled his nerves, responding with $16,000 in monetary donations, an estimated $15,000 in materials (as of May 6) and a lot of free labour, all for the benefit of the Shuswap Agricultural Association (SAA), which leases the south fairgrounds from the city and is responsible for maintaining the structures on the grounds.
"It compounded into something a lot more than I ever thought it would," said Schwandt. "I thought if we raise $5,000 we'll do this, but it went massively beyond any expectations of what would happen. And then all the construction crews threw their free labour in. It just blew me away… the big players really showed up."
While Schwandt got the ball rolling on the renovation, he admits – with a laugh – to "crushing cars for a living" and "being good at making things happen, but if it comes to building a set of steps or something, I am not your guy."
Leading the renovation work is SAA board member, local farmer and professional engineer Scott Syme, who undertook an assessment of the roughly four-decade old grandstand to find a number of areas in need of updating and repair.
Work began on Friday, May 2, with tradespeople working to strengthen and stabilize the structure with a "huge amount of lateral bracing" at the front and rear of the facility, upgrading the post and beam work along the centre beneath the stands, adding concrete foundations and framing in walls at both ends of the facility, completely rebuilding the guardrail system and more. Syme also plans to upgrade a "substantial amount" of the trusses that form that stands.
"For the most part we haven't really spent a lot of money out of pocket yet because we’ve had so many material donations," said Syme, adding there were some hydro-related costs.
"We also changed the power source on the building… the power line came in on the north side and basically right at the elevation that a kid can reach over and grab (it)," said Syme. "We put that on a utility pole and put it in underground to improve the safety on that side."
Like Schwandt, Syme is thrilled by, and grateful for the community's response.
"Everyone has been great; every company I've reached out to," said Syme. "Home Hardware, they gave us more than we asked for. We asked for a couple of lifts of lumber and I went ot pick it up and there was an extra half lift and it was like, don’t worry about it, it’s no big deal. And every contractor is like absolutely great, when do you want us there!"
Syme has been volunteering his own time towards the grandstand renovation, recognizing its loss would "definitely change the trajectory of the events that can happen there, and if I have to dump a couple hundred hours of my spring into it to make it work, then so be it."
It's that community spirit that makes Schwandt smile with pride.
"Having everybody stand up to the plate – it just makes me smile that we live in the town that we do," said Schwandt, who is also planning to do get some welding work done on the bleachers facing the grandstand. "There's nothing I wouldn't do to make the town happy. It just makes me smile to be here."
