By Dominic Abassi

Nanaimo bids shutout of $1M Aviva Fund grand prize

Dec 7, 2016 | 9:57 AM

NANAIMO — A great run towards a grand prize in a $1-million giveaway has come to a disappointing end for two Nanaimo schools.

Ecole Quarterway and McGirr Elementary had projects that advanced to the final judging round of the Aviva Community Fund competition, however neither school was awarded a grand prize when the winners were announced on Tuesday.

The Quarterway bid was aiming to get funding for a new, nature-inspired play space, while the McGirr entry was hoping to include new accessible and inclusive features to their playground. Both advanced to the top 30 out of all of the entries in Canada and were part of a round of judging by a panel of experts.

The 13 bids that won grand prize totals from across the country included a comnunity food centre in Dartmouth, a residential hospice in Ontario and a pediatric palliative care facility in Cape Breton.

In conversation with NanaimoNewsNOW, Aviva Canada’s Glenn Cooper says there is still some value for groups that don’t win the big sum of money they were hoping for. He says organizations learn how to reach out to their communities and also people in Nanaimo are now much more aware of the need behind these two projects. The Quarterway group generated more than 104,000 online community votes in the first round of the contest.

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Both Nanaimo bids will get a $5,000 donation in their name to the charity of their choice.

You can check out a list of all the winners here.