Saskatoon Italian Cultural Centre

Hi my name is Carlo and I am raising funds for the Saskatoon Italian Cultural Centre in Saskatoon Saskatchewan.

The Italian Canadian Association of Saskatoon (ICAS) formerly known as The Saskatoon Club Italia, is a non-profit community organization which has existed in Saskatoon since March 1969, thanks to Paolo Fenu, Gustavo Pocobelli, Pier Luigi Siccardi, Giulio Stella & Saverio Lorenzo.

The purpose of our organization is to maintain and promote: Italian language, culture and tradition in Saskatoon, sharing it with the community as a whole.

The first generation of Italian immigrants raised and donated their hard earned money to the association to purchase a 17-acre parcel of land near the outskirts of Saskatoon in 1980, in the hopes of establishing a local Italian Park & Cultural Centre.

Over the years our volunteers who ran The Italian Pavilion at Folk Fest enabled us to raise the necessary funds for planning and development of the Hall. It has been designed for expansion in the future, as funds permit.

We thank all those who donated their time, money, skills etc. Without our volunteers we could not have accomplished what has been done.

However since the Covid pandemic the club has not been able to generate the funds to continue to keep our doors open. When it rains it pours, first due to the pandemic we were unable to host our annual fall corn maze. The corn maze is our biggest fundraiser of the year and generally it allows the centre to keep operating. Also the ability to rent out the facility and hold community events was stalled by the Covid shutdown. To add to our trouble the water cistern system was damaged preventing the club from having an operating water system. And our donor who provided storage had to remove the steel portable which meant having to move the stored items directly into the club taking up the club space; adding to the inability to freely host events and rent the venue to add to operating costs.

I am hoping to raise funds to help get the Italian Cultural Centre back on it's feet and operating once again to its full potential. The funds will directly go to get the cistern system repaired, purchase a storage steel container (or garage package), money required to get the corn maze field prepared for the Fall 2024 Corn Maze event fundraiser, have funds to pay the utility/ electricity bills, outstanding loan debt and the property taxes which have added up over the last 3 and a half years. We would also like to get the three planned soccer fields built in order to host a few tournaments and rent out practice field space.