The Indigenous Rookie League Program in the Kenora area has received $426,000 for three years to help grow the program.

The grant comes from the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

Terry Parisien is the Sports and Recreation Manager with the Kenora Chief Advisory and says the funding has been instrumental in the growth of their league.

“It’s helped purchase supplies, posting training, workshops and administrative costs,” says Parisien.

“We can’t say enough thank-yous for that, because that has helped up over  the past 36 months.”

He says they represent eight first nation communities in the Kenora area and each community has a junior and senior team involved in the summer league.

“It’s a strong little, fun league.  And that’s what we’ve based our program on, just to have fun and learn how to play a basic game of baseball.  We’re not competitive.  We don’t want to be competitive.”

The funding comes from the Ontario Trillium Foundation’s Grow grant.