Former Horizon Parent Advisory Council president Kathy Owens was the driving force behind a plan to renovate the Ryan Boutwell Memorial Park, a playground behind the school, designed for its students who have special needs.
She was thrilled to see the approximately $180,000 playground officially reopened and rededicated during a ceremony at the park May 19.
“It just warms my heart. I'm so excited to see it finished,” she said. “The kids are out there; they're using it.”
The new playground facilities replace older facilities on the playground that were wooden and were deteriorating. It took about 18 months to raise funds for the project, Owens says. Money came from the town, the school division, parents, individuals and service clubs.
The new facilities are adult-sized because many of the students, who range in age from four years old to 20, like to play on them well into their teens.
They're also brightly coloured and very user friendly – featuring Braille in some cases.
Owens says she wasn't the first parent to come up with the idea to replace the old structures. That idea came up several times over the years. But she happened to be parent council president from 2012 - 2015, the years when it came to fruition.
She says a new playground was badly needed.
“The playground that we had was great, but it wasn't completely accessible to all of our students – especially ones who had mobility issues,” Owens said during an interview with the Albertan.
“Over the years, some of the pathways to and from it had become degraded (to the point) where it was really hard, if you were using canes or walkers or anything, to get to and from (the playground) because it wasn't right on the pathway.
“And then of course with safety issues because of wood structures – splinters and all that kind of stuff – we'd always looked at trying to do something that might add on to that,” she said.
Owens' son Kevin was a student at Horizon School from about 1997 to 2015.
She notes the new playground is fenced -- for good reason.
“A number of our students – my son when he was younger included – were runners. If they had an opportunity to get out and get away, they would just go.
“And Hartman Green is a huge park when you're trying to track down a small little student who is a lot faster than you are,” Owens said.
“So we were really looking at a place where we could let the kids play on their own. Because otherwise, pretty much all of their playtime is supervised and within arm's length of an adult.
“And that isn't true play when you've always got somebody standing there, either telling you what to do or trying to keep you in a certain area or away from something else.
“So we were really trying to find a play space where the kids could be on their own. They could exert their own independence; they could choose what activity they wanted to do.
“They could challenge themselves to learn to climb the steps to go down the slide, or to try and hold their body weight by using an upper body exercise – something like that they wouldn't necessarily do if there was an adult holding hands with them all the time,” she added.
She says the new playground facilities will do a lot for students' pride in themselves, and simply be more fun for them.
“For our students to be able to use that independently is huge – not just for them and their self-esteem and their ability to exert their own independence and make their own choices, but for the teachers and staff to be able to see the kids out there free-playing and just enjoying it – and getting some fresh air, because otherwise, your recreation facility is inside a building and really limited,” she said.
“So it's a chance for them be out in the fresh air; to run, to jump, to smile, push and swing and do all of that – all that kids' stuff? It's huge.” [email protected]
"It just warms my heart. I'm so excited to see it finished. The kids are out there; they're using it."KATHY OWENS FORMER HORIZON SCHOOL PARENT ADVISORY COUNCIL PRESIDENT
