For two days (September 9 and 10) the community of Cochrane came together to celebrate Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre (SLSFSC).

Roughly 9 years after the need was identified, the Town of Cochrane was thrilled to officially unveil the new aquatic, curling, and fitness centre to citizens young and old.

Free swimming, curling, games, demonstrations, and prizes made up the two-day celebration, and it was well received, shares Suzanne Gaida, Town of Cochrane, Deputy Chief of Administration. "It's always good to bring everyone within the community together. Whether it's the politicians, the seniors', the families, youth, business owners, media, everybody; bring them together and celebrate something such as this new facility."

For many residents who were vacationing since the centre's soft opening in July, it was their first opportunity to see the completed project and feedback was fantastic. "The people who came were very well receptive, I heard lots of good comments, people we're really happy, it had a really good vibe."

The expansion to Spray Lakes is already being well utilized by the community at large, and the numbers prove it. "In August, they had just over 20,000 visitors come to the pool from August 1 to the 31. That is huge; Big Hill Leisure Pool the old facility, averaged around 6,000 visitors in August when you look at the stats and around 60,000 visitors for the year."

With the official opening wrapping up, Gaida, says throughout this year users can expect to see some transition occur. While the town and Rocky View County own Spray Lakes, the SLSFSC board manage the daily operation on their behalf, and as things settle and programming numbers come in, residents will need to exercise patience. "When you just talk to the pool or even the curling, you are going from a facility that was overbooked, over subscribed, to a facility that is four to five times the size so you just don't increase your programs by five times the size you have to slowly build that out and feel out what does the community want. Even without the programming, that first year be patient with the fact that you may come and the hot tub may be closed or something may be happening because we are working out deficiencies which is very normal in a construction project."

Fundraising will continue to be a focus for the town and Gaida is confident that even though the facility is open future sponsors will still come on board. "When we launched Rock the Waves in 2014, the whole idea was that it was a five year campaign...so we're not done, we're just halfway through the campaign. What we do know throughout other various things throughout the province and Canada that once it's built there's still lots for people to put their name on. We are continuing to book tours with different organizations to go through and look at those opportunities, because once you see it built that is when they can start to see themselves sponsoring something. We are very confident that over the next year to year and a half we're hoping to have all those opportunities locked in."

The two day event also contributed $2000 toward the Rock the Waves fundraising campaign through the dunk tank, Patsy’s Place barbeque, and Jugo Juice smoothies.