CAMBRIDGE -- A group of friends are trying to breathe new life into the aging amphitheatre behind Galt Collegiate in Cambridge.
Devon Pearce and his friends Chantelle Steen and Connor Allen started cleaning up the amphitheatre last September after noticing its state of decay.
“I couldn’t let it sit in this state,” Pearce said.
The amphitheatre, which is owned by the Waterloo Region District School Board hasn't been used in more than a decade.
When the trio first came across the structure, they said it was overgrown by trees and bushes and the wooden benches were rotten.
“We spent weeks cutting all of this out, like all the bush, all the overgrowth. Trying to recover these periwinkle gardens here. We also went into the river and pulled out the two railings,” Pearce said.
The friends have logged more than 200 hours of work since last year, despite a recent hurdle. When they returned to the amphitheatre last week after taking a break over the winter, they noticed bricks were missing.
“It just killed our morale because we did all this work," Pearce said.
Pearce said he posted to social media asking the community for help in recovering the missing bricks, and said the response was overwhelming.
“Now we have people offering to donate bricks the exact same style. We have a gardener who wants to come out on weekends to start helping us. We have other people willing to volunteer their time now,” he said.
The future of the amphitheatre remains uncertain. In 2019, the WRDSB held a public consultation on whether the outdoor theatre would be restored or torn down.
Pearce wants the amphitheatre saved, saying it could be used for weddings, as an outdoor theatre and as a gathering place.
“We want this to be a community thing," he said.
Pearce and his friends aren't the only ones hoping to save the amphitheatre, a community group called Friends of GCI Amphitheatre have also been fundraising to revitalize it.
“The hope is to revitalize the space to something that has a replica a little bit close to what it was in the past, but also for use for 21st century, with safety in mind,” said Jamie Colwell who is part of Friends of GCI Amphitheatre.
Colwell said while he applauds Pearce’s efforts to restore the amphitheatre, it needs more than just a facelift.
“It’s not safe to restore it,” Colwell said. “If we were to just restore it, then we would be limiting ourselves to something we could be doing, and we could be doing a disservice and not getting the full realm of what all the youth might want in there.”
In a statement to CTV News, WRDSB said “some scheduled maintenance work on the stage and seating area is scheduled for the coming weeks."
"We continue to work with the Friends of GCI group as we move forward with work relating to the amphitheatre and plan on reaching out to Devon Pearce in the near future to discuss his restoration efforts. We will provide him with background information about our progress so far and the journey ahead of us as we seek to revitalize the amphitheatre," the statement said in part.
Pearce is hoping his conversation with the school board will save the space.
