Mayoral Candidate Steve Brent Talks Chatham-Kent Sports

CKSN asked all candidates running for Chatham-Kent council and mayor, to give us their backgrounds in sports and recreation, and decribe their goals and views for not only sports and recreation in Chatham-Kent, but making Chatham-Kent a healthier, and more active place to live.

The Chatham-Kent Municipal election day is October 27, 2014.

Here are mayoral candidate Steve Brent’s responses. Steve Brent is running for the Mayor of Chatham-Kent.

All the young people in Chatham-Kent should have the opportunity to participate in sports and recreational activities. Participation in these activities builds healthy young people and teaches them team work and leadership skills for use in their adult life.

1. Background in sports and recreation:

Growing up in Wallaceburg I was always been active in sports and recreational activities. These included:

• tap dance lessons with Francis DeShaw
• martial arts training with Art Savard at WDSS
• an ultra-successful contribution to WDSS’s sports history with my gymnastics (coached gymnastics for six years privately as well at the high school), volleyball (all Ontario and Senior League with Clare Maltby who was a driving force in my life, my “life coach”), wrestling and track & field efforts.

When not in the gym at WDSS I was at the arena – notably with Sam Foster’s Juvenile Lacrosse Team as well as playing with the Red Devil Senior Team prior to launching my business career that took me away from Chatham-Kent for 26 years.

My 30+ nieces and nephews who lived locally have benefited throughout the years with sports programs offered in our community. They continue to enjoy active lives that include soccer, competitive dance, and the martial amongst the many sports and artistic endeavours they are involved in.

Community Activities

I have been involved in volunteering with more than a dozen organizations in every community in Chatham-Kent.

As mentioned, I coached gymnastics in Wallaceburg for six years privately and at Wallaceburg District Secondary school.

I have been involved with numerous organizations to benefit the well-being of people in Chatham-Kent. These include:

• St. Andrew’s Residence
• Canadian Cancer Society – Chatham Unit
• VON
• Foundation of Chatham-Kent Health Alliance
• Brain Tumour Foundation
• Big Brothers Big Sisters
• United Way of Chatham-Kent
• Chatham Women’s Centre
• Knights of Columbus
• The James Fund
• Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure

2. How will you work to make Chatham-Kent a healthier, more active place for people to live?

The health and wellness of our community must be a priority of the municipal government. We need to work with our health care providers, the health organizations and associations and our educational institutions to better inform young and old alike about the route to better health. The municipality needs to partner with businesses to support physical and mental health initiatives. We need to support local agriculture and initiatives like local food markets with local food supplies.

Chatham-Kent needs to better tap into the resources available from our senior levels of government to ensure more and better funding for recreational and cultural activities.

One of the priorities I hear from parents is to build a new double pad arena to ensure we have the most up-to date facilities in which to play and compete in a variety of sports activities. I will work with corporate and private entities as well to assist the municipality in building and paying for this facility.

We need to ensure our current sports facilities are better cared for and better used for more activities. We need to ensure the proper facilities are in the right places in the community to maximize their usage. We need to protect our sports teams like the Maroons, Blades and Kings. We need to better promote our fantastic resources like our golf courses, our beaches, and our outdoor activities on our many different waterways.

Chatham-Kent is home to the largest fresh water port in the world, something unknown to even most of our own residents. The opportunities for sport fishing as well as the commercial fishing industry are limitless.

I will ensure the municipality is the clearing house to enable all our sports, recreational and cultural organizations to be successful in providing activities to the community.

3. Anything else you’d like to add?

The Chatham-Kent municipal government must provide support for recreational, sports and cultural activities. Our government needs to ensure a positive environment exists for our children to play and have fun.

We need to support our organized sports and teams. We need to give them places to play that meet
their needs and are accessible and safe.

We need to support non-organized sports – places and times when people can get together to play and have fun.

I want Chatham-Kent to be a place where people want to be. This requires a commitment from the local government to ensure our community is healthy and active by providing opportunities for sports, recreation and cultural activities to be a core part of our community.