Sudbury Northern Life 
Walden Cross Country Fitness Club received an early Christmas present from General Motors of Canada today that will help support coaches training initiatives planned for 2009.
This club is one of 51 community sports clubs across Canada to receive a $2,000 grant for coaching skill development.
According to Coaching Association of Canada (CAC) good coaching is fundamental to community sport.
In addition to building Olympic dreams, coaches play a critical role as they share the positive aspects of an active lifestyle and teach young Canadians everything from teamwork and character building to the fundamental skills of the sport.
"Coaches have an enormous impact on the development of young Canadians," said Marc Comeau, GM of Canada's vice-president of sales, service and marketing in a recent release.
"With support from the Coaching Association of Canada (CAC), these grants were designed to invest in coaches in communities across Canada. We believe that ongoing coach development at the grass roots level is essential whether they are training beginners or Olympians."
The CAC is partners with GM through the Making Dreams Possible program. To date, this program has touched more than 10,000 coaches and over 125,000 athletes in 131 communities across the country.
Making Dreams Possible is a program developed by GM in co-operation with the CAC, the governing body of Canada's coaching education program and is designed to support coaches of Olympic and Paralympic Sports at the high performance and community levels.
The program will provide a minimum of 100 grants of $2,000 each year for coach development in local communities. Applications can be submitted by head coaches, technical directors or the presidents of local sports clubs. These grants will be used to fund special projects that develop the skills and abilities of community level coaches.
GM also provides 10 grants of $10,000 each annually to high performance athletes and their coaches.
Application deadlines are Sunday, Feb. 15 with grants to be awarded in May.
For more information visit www.thedriveison.ca .
