Youth Centre rises, phoenix-like, from the ashes (surprise!)

Three times, Marty Wyant's proposal for a Sault Youth Centre failed to collect enough votes to make it into the semifinals of the Aviva Community Fund online competition.

But today, we got a big surprise.

Wyant's proposal was one of two named as Aviva semifinalists, not because of votes, but because of buzz.

"We've identified two competitors that have gone above and beyond in promoting their ideas on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and other sites," Aviva said this morning in announcing the news. "Congratulations to the buzzworthy qualifiers, who have earned a spot in the semi-finals."

Wyant, chief executive officer of the Sault Ste. Marie Family YMCA, is seeking $75,000 from the Aviva Community Fund for a new local youth centre.

The money would be used to add a youth library, gaming lounge, computer-based music studio, mulitmedia centre, pool table and board games to all the other amenities currently available at the local Y.

There are 60 semi-finalists.

Voting to reduce that to 25 finalists will start this Wednesday.

The Aviva Community Fund will fund at least one idea in each of three categories (less than $10,000), $10,000-$50,000, $50,000-$250,000.

After these ideas have been funded, the program will fund additional ideas until the money is gone.

To visit the Aviva Community Fund web page and see who we'll be up against, please click here.