Bustling in the Building
A Year to Reno
This past year in facilities has been significant - from changing light bulbs to full blown renovations. Our team has included contractors, labourers, volunteers, and our own staff. Now, our facilities staff team is small yet hard working and I am grateful for the day-to-day maintenance they do, as well as the big pieces, to keep this machine running.
LIGHT FIXTURES
We have spent time this past year prioritizing eco-friendly choices in areas such as lighting. Currently, we have replaced over 400 lights with LED options. This has us at about halfway done in this process and we hope to complete this transition in this coming year. Small changes reflected in the utility bill has already confirmed the benefit of this transition.
RENOVATING THE SANCTUARY 
Some of you may remember last Summer into Fall where we, as a Church, transitioned to the Gym and Youth Centre for Sunday Services. My team spent much of our time partnering with Contractors and labourers alike to complete the updated sanctuary you see now. This included updates such as paint, lighting, new flooring, prepping the stage for Phase 4B, HVAC improvements, and a transition from pews to chairs. This was completed in time to have our first Sunday back in the Sanctuary on September 29th. Thank you to the 85 people who put in a total of 220 hours of volunteer work to make this possible!
SOUP & THE 6
In the Spring, many ministries partnered together to introduce Soup and the Six - our Kitchen staff being one of them. This was a significant event for our Kitchen, serving 2 kinds of soup each Sunday. In the 3 weeks we were able to run this event, our Kitchen served approximately 1000 people, averaging about 327 per Sunday evening.
COVID-19
This has most certainly impacted the day-to-day and operation of our facilities team. Adjustments have been made to washroom availability, room availability, increased cleaning and sanitization of specific higher-use areas, protocol for staff use, and ultimately a shut-down of the building for public use. We took this time to finalize foyer renos, do routine maintenance of the building, and improve a few spaces. The onset of COVID-19 resulted in a 2-stage floor to ceiling deep clean and disinfect of both our Youth Centre and our East Wing (Kids Ministry space). Each space took 6 people working for 2 weeks to complete. This was finalized by a facelift to the Youth Centre including patching holes, re-mudding, and a complete repainting taking approximately 40 gallons of paint. It has also impacted our Kitchen Ministry, resulting in a decrease of 10,000 plates served from last year’s average for this time and a closing of it’s doors alongside the closing of the building. Perhaps most significantly, COVID-19 has impacted our team in layoffs. We will miss the hard work and dedication of Linda Cullen-Saik, Richard Courchaine, Neila Lehman, Tammy Smart, Louise Rautenbach, Cindi Leighton, Corey Giesbrecht, and Brent Hamelin.
SOFTWARE UPGRADE
The last renovation is on our facilities management software. We are grateful to say we are currently upgrading our software and process to provide a more detailed and streamline inclusive experience for our team and those who will be utilizing our building once we reopen. We look forward to reopening and serving each of you with this space again.
Kyle Reed, Director of Facility Operations
