Tyler Thorn says CBA proud of its role in helping establish new foundation

May 20, 2026, 8:59 am
Ashley Bochek, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Tyler Thorn of Celebration Ford and member of the Moosomin Community Builders Alliance (CBA)

Tyler Thorn of Celebration Ford and member of the Moosomin Community Builders Alliance (CBA) says the CBA is helping to establish the new Pipestone Legacy Community Foundation in Moosomin in order to help build a new rink in Moosomin.

“The biggest role that we’re going to play is helping establish the foundation. That takes a bit of time, energy, and is going to take some money, but we’ve started the ball rolling.

“We are working with the Saskatchewan Community Foundation at the moment and navigating our way through that. We’ll help get it started, but it’ll be a community foundation. That to me is the most important piece of this. The rink will be secondary to the foundation for the future of the region.
Establishing the foundation is going to be key to continue growth and the rink will be the first test of how the foundation can function and help build public infrastructure without draining public budgets.

Thorn says another CBA member brought the idea forward earlier this year.
“Kristjan Hebert brought it forward first and the model that he refers to is like Harvard or some of these universities have these foundations that are hundreds of millions of dollars. That’s how they build infrastructure at these universities and we thought ‘why can’t we do it here?’ If you go back 50 years, and you look at all the projects that have been built and all the money that’s been raised, both public and private money—if that money would have gone into a foundation we’d have about $20 million in a foundation. A good example would be the day care when they brought forward building a new day care two years ago and need $3 million, a $20 million foundation doesn’t have $3 million but it’s got a million bucks a year. So now you can go to the day care with foundation money and say, we can’t write a cheque for $3 million, but we can commit $250,000 for the next 10 years to help service the debt and help you make your mortgage payments.”

Community-minded entrepreneurs
Thorn says Moosomin has community-minded individuals who want to see the second rink built.

“We’ve got some incredibly smart young people in this community that are leading the charge on both of these projects. Entrepreneurs like Kristjan Hebert of Hebert Grain Ventures and Dan and Olga McCarthy of IJack, they are such an asset to the community and they don’t do it because it’s good for their business—people like McCarthys and Heberts, they have exactly zero customers in Moosomin. They’re not doing it for the sake of their business. They’re doing it for the good of the community. They’re smart, community-minded individuals and so full of energy. The future of the community is very bright when you’ve got people like that willing to invest, not just their money, but their time and their energy to moving things like this forward and growing our community.”

Thorn explains the foundation has been an idea for a few years and feels the second rink is the best project to kick it off.

“The foundation has been on the radar since we started the CBA three or four years ago. The rink has pushed us to get it done. We’ve talked about a second rink. It’s a catalyst and it is a great project to motivate people to donate when they know where it’s going, as opposed to future projects. It’s hard to motivate people to donate to the foundation without a specific project. So this way with the second rink, when you’ve got a project that’s tied to the foundation it becomes easier to raise the money. It also shows the province and the federal government we are serious because they’re not going to put their money in it if there is no plan.”

A rendering of the new rink planned for Moosomin

Thorn adds, “There are some people that are pretty determined to get this rink built and we needed a project as a catalyst to get this thing going and so the second rink felt like good timing.”

Funding for future projects
Thorn explains the plan is the foundation will also help support future projects in the community.

“There are other things in the future that it works for as well. It doesn’t have to be rec facilities either, it could be infrastructure. There’s lots of different opportunities you could use it for, to help grow Moosomin.

Community support for foundation
Thorn says the foundation will help build future projects for the town and hopes the community supports the opportunities the foundation will provide.

“Some people might be a little hesitant to support it, until they see it works, but long term, 10 years from now, people will see all the good it does—I really think people possibly start leaving some of their estate to the foundation. I really think it comes to that, and that money goes in there, and it stays there, and the region will benefit from that forever. I really think it’s a good project for the future of not just Moosomin, but the whole region.”

The CBA hopes the foundation will spur development as a successful pilot project in the province for other communities to follow.

“I think there will be lots of communities—we get that now, I just met with some folks from Yorkton asking about the CBA and what we’re doing here in Moosomin —and this will be an extension of that,” said Thorn. “I think once we have the rink being built and the foundation, there will be lots of people reaching out, wondering how we did it. I think it’s great if we can pilot it, especially if we can work with the province and the federal government as a pilot project and prove it works, particularly for rural development on the Prairies.”

Catalyst for new development
Thorn says Park Avenue along the old Number One Highway is in need of new development and hopes the new rink will initiate additional new infrastructure.

“I think the rink will become an anchor tenant for a section of Park Avenue that’s in dire need of some investment and new development. A decent looking rink in there and who knows what else comes, maybe a strip mall or a restaurant or another motel. I think it’d be great for that whole west end of Park Avenue to maybe spur on some development and I believe the new rink will help with that. There are so many opportunities for growth and the rink and foundation are both working toward that.”