The Affinity Credit Union and Riverbend Co-operative teamed up recently to help out the community of Kenaston by stripping, pressure washing and painting the curling rink.

“We wanted to do something that would benefit the community and Affinity is all about supporting communities,” said Toni Tweet, financial service supervisor at Affinity Credit Union. “We did it on a week day and we sent staff to the curling rink to paint, of course the staff were paid their normal wage. For Affinity, it was donating the staff hours to go and paint the rink.”

The refurbishing took place July 27 when members of the co-operatives went down to the rink to scrape off the old paint and pressure wash the building. A week later the rink was painted white.

“There were probably 10 to 15 people who were painting the curling rink,” said Tweet. “There were two sprayers and lots of people painting with rollers and brushes. It’s a building that is owned by the town, so we wanted to do something to benefit the town.”

This act of goodwill was performed as a way to celebrate the International Year of the Cooperative that brings together co-ops from across Saskatchewan to help out their community who support them by buying memberships.

Tweet said the rink needs a second coat and the front of the building still needs to be done, but that will have to wait a little bit until they can get their hands on some more paint.  She said around 40 gallons of paint were used on the building to apply the first coat.

“Co-op is all about membership,” she said. “It is about community ownership, so this is some way that we could give back to the community.”