Kids in the community and beyond are one step closer to having the most eye-popping and biggest place to play.
On Feb. 24, town council enthusiastically approved a staff recommendation to contribute $10,000 to the community-led initiative to construct a state-of-the-art playground at the Innisfail Schools Campus, which is undergoing a multi-million dollar expansion and modernization.
“This playground just isn't for the schools, it's for the entire community,” said Coun. Patt Churchill. “I am totally in support for this.”
The new playground initiative, spearheaded by a subcommittee of the Ecole John Wilson Parent Council Society, began last May with a goal of raising $300,000 by 2015.
Prior to the Feb. 24 council meeting the subcommittee raised $70,000 from the community. With the additional $10,000 from the town, members of the subcommittee, who attended the council meeting, now feel confident they have a realistic chance of being shovel-ready with the project by this fall.
“It is great to have the town backing us. I am ecstatic. I can't believe it. I am very emotional and over-the-top happy,” said Bobbi-Jo Stott, mother of three and member of the subcommittee.
Stott said the town's contribution, as well as all the others, can translate to being doubled if the subcommittee is successful in obtaining a matching provincial government grant.
“Ten thousand actually gives us $20,000 towards our playground. It is incredible,” she said.
The town's support of the project follows an earlier rejection from Red Deer County to support the project, despite there being about 250 rural public school students, about 20 per cent of the total, who attend the three Chinook's Edge schools. There are also 145 out of the 300 students at St. Marguerite Bourgeoys School who are county-based.
“We truly appreciate anyone looking at it and we respect completely those who can make it work in this project or can't,” said subcommittee member Jackie Taylor, who is also principal of Ecole John Wilson Elementary School. “We believe that at any given time, any project in the community can have some who can help at that time and some who at that time it just doesn't fit on their plate, and we are respectful of that completely.”
Taylor said the town's contribution will go a long way towards successfully obtaining a matching government grant from the province's Community Facility Enhancement Program. She said the subcommittee is now preparing its application, which has a due date of March 15.
She said if the subcommittee is successful it could have enough to begin the project this year.
“We are actually closer than you think,” said Taylor. “Our original price had us around $300,000 but the contractor has been able to offer some very good sales. We are currently now staring down at a project that has us seeking about $220,000.
“Yes, we have $80,000 raised but we also have other value that you can build into the grant application,” she said, adding that in-kind donations such as the volunteer labour from the local Kinsmen club comes out to about a $21,000 monetary value. “You can build that into the grant application. It can go in the full (maximum) $125,000 request.”
Taylor said the new playground has now been “fully” planned. She said there will be two separate play structures with one addressing the “littlest” of children who are between four and six years old, and the other for older students, age nine and up.
“It is more than just seeing one play structure go in that you might see in a typical park enhancement. It is larger than that,” she said. “We dreamed big. Our plans are comprehensive. They have lots of play factor, lots of fun. We wanted to do lots for the kids of Innisfail, and we thought if we are going to start down on this road of fundraising and putting something in place for kids, let's go for everything we can think of that our students will really benefit from.”
