After a fire in downtown Peace River at Juliette’s Place on September 12, 2021, the Shamrock Boxing Club in the building beside received significant smoke and water damages to their basement facility.
The Shamrock Boxing Club has been in Peace River for over three decades and holds junior, youth and adult boxing classes as well as fit box classes for women.
Candace Loughlin, President and Head Coach of Shamrock Boxing Club says she went to investigate the damages afterwards “the laminate was actually floating, so it’s pretty bad and in order to fix down there they had to gut the whole building.” Loughlin noted the water damage was almost six inches high before it was sucked out of the basement.
Loughlin says they aren’t sure if any equipment is salvageable “All of our equipment, which was off the floor may have toxic smoke, so we’re not even sure right now if we can save any gloves or bags.” All the equipment, matting and flooring that was on the ground is unusable Loughlin says.
The Shamrock Boxing Club is run by volunteers and relies heavily on donations to stay open and get new equipment. Loughlin says “registration essentially just pays our rent and so over the years everything we have is from the hard work of our volunteer coaches.”
The club has set up a GoFundMe Page to help pay for new equipment and special flooring; as their insurance does not cover the expenses.
The club wants to thank the Peace River Fire Department for saving their building and all that they could inside.
-Erika Rolling, Trending 55 Newsroom
