Revelstoke boxing club scrambles to find new home

Time is running out for the Revelstoke Boxing Club to find a new home, with their current site at the old Mount Begbie School gym tagged for demolition.

It’s a blow for the club, who have enjoyed the facility for the last few years. Revelstoke boxing coach AJ LeRose described the gym as the envy of many clubs around Canada.

“It was a great facility,” he said.

Now the local club is experienced déjà vu. They moved to their current site from the Big Eddy School gym after it was prepared for demolition.

School District 19 has advised the club they need to be out of the Mount Begbie School gym in August. There are no hard feelings against the school board though — LeRose said they have been in contact and the board has accommodated the club’s needs as best as they could.

Now, left with the oncoming deadline of finding a new site, the club is jumping into action. First they appealed to the City of Revelstoke to acquire the Mount Begbie School gym and reportedly collected about 600 signatures in a petition that was handed out. The city declined the option due to costs.

The club is now appealing to the city for use the Century Vallen building at 207 4th Street West, which is used for storage.

“Hopefully we can still use this petition to show the city and council there is strong demand for the boxing club to be in Revelstoke,” LeRose said.

Other community groups including Community Connections have previously requested use of this building, which the city rejected due to the costs of required renovations.

The Revelstoke Boxing Club has about 60 members and has been operating for 15 years. LeRose said an empty storage facility is what they need — somewhere they can hang punching bags and has floor space. The organization is volunteer run so cheap rent is crucial to their survival.

“We will keep looking and if somebody is willing to support us — we don’t really have any other facilities available to us, within our price range,” LeRose said. “We’re doing our best.”

Whether the club will operate after August remains to be seen.

“I’m not too sure at this point,” LeRose said. “There has been quite a substantial amount of defeatism going around, but I’m trying my best to get the city involved, to help us out with this situation. But at this point it is still unclear.”