Center Notre-Dame-de-Fatima inaugurated its giant table soccer pitch on Wednesday, November 20. The custom-built project cost $65,000 and was carried out in collaboration with Jeux-Tec in Coteau-du-Lac.

The idea for the giant foosball pitch was born in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, when the animation team had to come up with activities that respected sanitary measures and distancing. A prototype was built using recycled materials such as field hockey boards and PVC pipes. Unfortunately, the structure quickly deteriorated after a few months.

"I'm proud of the team's work and excited to offer this new feature to the people who frequent our site. Children and adults who come to Fatima will be able to play games 12 months a year. It's a great addition to our service offering," says Steven Grenier, General Manager of the Centre Notre-Dame-de-Fatima and the Paul-Leboeuf Foundation.

Although artisanal foosball initiatives have sprung up elsewhere in the province, the unique feature of the giant foosball field that Fatima is inaugurating in November 2024 is that it has a permanent structure built by professionals.

"As soon as we saw how much fun it was for the children who had the chance to use it, we knew we had an interesting project to develop.What's more, this activity is accessible to all the clientele using our site, especially children and adults with special needs who use our camp, respite and accommodation services," says Mr. Grenier.

"It's a wonderful project.We were fortunate to have several partners who believed in the benefits of our idea and financially supported 100% of the project costs.I'd like to thank Promutuel, the Fondation des Sourds du Québec, the Fondation Maison Odette and our own Fondation Paul-Leboeuf. For this promising project, we also received a financial contribution of $20,000 from the Ministère de l'Éducation as part of Volet 3 - Soutien à la réalisation de projets du Programme d'aide financière à l'accessibilité aux camps de vacances," added the General Manager.

The giant foosball court at Centre Notre-Dame-de-Fatima offers an alternative way to get active outdoors.Children and adults with special respite and accommodation needs will be the first to be able to play games this fall.

The activity will be available to day camp participants, school groups and residential groups this winter.

"Accessibility to sports, recreational and outdoor activities is essential, whatever the condition of participants. The Centre Notre-Dame-de-Fatima initiative is a fine example of this. Campers of all ages will now be able to take advantage of this new offer in an adapted, safe and pleasant environment. This project contributes to the creation of an environment conducive to the regular practice of physical activities, recreation and sports at summer camps, and I'm pleased that the government is supporting it," said Isabelle Charest, Minister responsible for Sport, Recreation and Outdoors.