CREDIT: MELANIE ANDERSON
Murray Howard, president of the George Bray Sports Association, expresses his gratitude for being selected as a recipient of the Budweiser Gardens 10th anniversary fundraising efforts.

Regardless of what you call it, it's been the premier sports and entertainment venue in the city of London for 10 years. The newly renamed Budweiser Gardens (previously the John Labatt Centre) is celebrating a decade of providing everything from big-name concerts to a home for the London Knights.

To commemorate the milestone, Global Spectrum, the company that manages Budweiser Gardens, selected two local charities as beneficiaries for the 10th anniversary fundraising efforts. "Our goal was to make a local contribution that would benefit both arts and sports," said Brian Ohl, GM of Budweiser Gardens.

Arts for All Kids was selected as one of the two recipients. It's a volunteer organization that provides free fine arts instruction to families who cannot afford extracurricular instruction. Arts for All Kids is heading into its 24th year and serves children ages seven to 12.

Director Karen Pincombe wanted Londoners to remember the importance of the arts: "We really believe that the arts are a growingup necessity; as our times get tougher, it seems that the first group that gets hit are things like the arts." Children in the program can learn everything from a musical instrument to drama, singing, visual arts and creative writing. Pincombe stressed. "We really believe that this contributes to them understanding themselves, being good communicators, and thinking outside the box."

Arts For All Kids wasn't the only lucky recipient; the George Bray Sports Association was also selected. The program was developed to provide children with learning, emotional, social and/or physical disabilities the opportunity to play hockey in a regular structured league. Murray Howard is president of the program, and he stressed how grateful he was for this partnership. "We can get a lot out of it; my ice bill is $47,000, my registration fees are just under $19,000, so there's a large gap there that I have to make up each and every year … I can have all the time and energy in the world, but at the same time, you still have to pay the bills."

Even though they've been around since 1968, Howard said he feels many Londoners don't know about their program. "The school boards have assessed 6,500 children in the city of London who qualify for our program," he said. He wanted parents to know that there are sports opportunities for disabled children. "Many parents will say, 'My child can't play 'cuz he has Down (syndrome)' — sure he can, and let me tell ya, Downs players are pretty good hockey players."

The volunteer-driven organization strives to make the program work for each child. "Understanding the children is what we do," said Howard, "The biggest thing we do in the city of London is that we adapt our program to the child, we do not try to adapt the child to the program and that's what works for us." Currently the program has 14 teams and 225 children.

Howard expressed his appreciation of the opportunity, "I look at it and say, 'This is the highest level of hockey in the city of London and they are recognizing and appreciating and helping a smaller program like us, and we have children with special needs.' So to me that's kudos to Budweiser Gardens and kudos to the London Knights to realize that everybody wants to play."

Budweiser Gardens is hosting a public open house on October 10 from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. and all members of the community are invited. The event will feature a self-guided tour, meet and greets with the Knights and Lightning players and locker room tours.

The official opening of Budweiser Gardens will be held on Thursday, October 11 at 11 a.m.