Sault Police, Social Services and Mac’s officials were on hand at the Neighbourhood Resource Centre (NRC) at 138 Gore Street Monday to make a two-pronged announcement regarding crime prevention and social development.
First, it was formally announced the Mac’s Convenience Store location at 187 Gore Street, the site of so many robberies in that grim yet slowly reviving neighbourhood, has stopped operating overnight, from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., since October.
“It has helped. We don’t get robbed at all since we’ve done that,” said Palmer Maniacco, Mac’s market manager for the Sault and Wawa.
Locally, the decision to close overnight applies only to the Gore Street Mac’s location.
“It’s unfortunate that this Mac’s location was the primary spot in the city for quite a number of robberies, but since Mac’s took positive steps there haven’t been any robberies there since October…it shows great leadership for them in crime prevention,” said Sean Sparling, Sault Ste. Marie Police Service deputy chief.
Secondly, Sparling also commended Mac’s for stepping up with $5,000 in sponsorship money for a video game program to be played out at various spots throughout the Sault, designed to build a sense of community, neighbourhood pride, and an eye for crime spotting among game participants.
Over the next five months, five Sault neighbourhoods, each of them making up a team, will engage in a friendly competition with each other playing pre-selected video games, such as Tetris and Minecraft, with different skill levels.
The games will be played at the Neighbourhood Resource Centre at 138 Gore Street and at Community Hubs located at Boston Avenue, Second Line West, Chapple and Albion Streets and Crawford Avenue.
“The Neighbourhood Video Game Program is all about cognitive health, a sense of teamwork and community,” said Melissa Ceglie, Social Services development coordinator, speaking to SooToday.
“Initiatives like the Neighbourhood Video Game Program, partnering with such a prominent business such as Mac’s, which is located in each one of these neighbourhoods, is a way to show that we all work together to have these social development initiatives which have so many positive outcomes right across the community,” Ceglie said.
Simply put, if a neighbourhood can work together on video games, it will work together on all neighbourhood affairs, such as crime prevention and other matters, Ceglie said.
“Social development is a very important part of developing community well-being and neighbourhood well-being, and when you have a strong and healthy community, it benefits all the businesses, all the residents within that neighbourhood.”
Ceglie will monitor the neighbourhood games at the Community Hubs, while Constable Troy Miller will do the same at the Neighbourhood Resource Centre.
Neighbourhood residents, beginning Monday, can go to the Neighbourhood Resource Centre or one of the Community Hubs to register to take part in the video game competition, which will run for two days per week for two hours each time.
A “neighbourhood celebration” will take place for the winning neighbourhood, Ceglie said.
“If we start to mobilize the community and develop it from a social perspective, people in the neighbourhood start to take ownership of some of the issues…Social Services is really happy the police and Mac’s are starting to look at the community holistically and develop strategies that really allow people to participate in the communities where they reside,” said Mike Nadeau, Social Services CAO.