Holy Trinity School has been awarded a matching grant for every dollar that the school's playground committee raises by the Let Them Be Kids (LTBK) organization.
The committee will also be applying shortly to the Community Facilities Enhancement Program (CFEP), which will hopefully match the dollars raised by the committee and granted to it by LTBK, said Blake Krause, the school's principal. Thus far, the playground committee has raised about $30,000.
“(Let Them Be Kids) is also going to provide us with some coaching and some templates and ideas on how to get a large group of volunteers … and also go through the playground construction with us. The really positive feature with this is that because it's a matching grant it actually has the possibility of actually quadrupling the funds that we can generate,” he said.
Krause said the school plans to have a community work bee by volunteers on Sept. 22, the first anniversary of the school's grand opening. In addition to the symbolism of the date, it also provides time to hear back from the provincial grant application and let community volunteers come out and support the project. If the project was done in summer, not as many volunteers would be able to come out, nor would the students be able to participate, Krause said.
The application for a CFEP grant is underway and will be sent off prior to the June 15 deadline. In the meantime, the playground committee is getting together as many funds as it can and will be asking the students for design ideas for the space.
In addition to building the playground on Sept. 22, plans are underway to potentially partner with Olds College to get some landscaping expertise and get a grant from Red Deer Regional Catholic Schools to add a “rosary garden” or a similar project to tie in with the school's faith mandate. Krause said school administration is also talking to the town about sports field development north of the school and said it would be a great way to get a lot of volunteers if all those events took place in a relatively short time frame.
“I think it would be really awesome if we could do all three events at once … I think that would be a really good celebration and really good way to bring in a lot of community volunteers and bringing us together and that's the whole point of winning this grant,” he said.
Barbara Hill, director of community services with the Town of Olds, said the town has been in discussions with the school about sports field development but any construction won't take place until next year, after the Open Space and Trails Master Plan has been completed. The plan is expected to be completed in December.
Hill said any work done in the area on sports fields would be dependent on the priorities identified in the plan. Both the town and Red Deer Regional Catholic Schools share ownership of the land north of the school that would be used for any sports fields.
"The really positive feature with this is that because it's a matching grant it actually has the possibility of actually quadrupling the funds that we can generate."Blake Krause, principal, Holy Trinity School
