Milk River unveils new playground plan
The Town of Milk River has unveiled a playground design plan to the public with new and upgraded equipment that would make the site more accessible to children with varying needs.
After it became apparent there was a lack of accessibility at the current facility to some children within the town, an upgrade of the local playing facilities to suit all childrens’ requirements was established as a high-priority need to many.
“We have a couple of children with varying degrees of cerebral palsy here in Milk River,” says Mandy Court, a Milk River School Advisory Council member, and playground committee member. “One little guy in particular uses a walker to get around, and our current playground was very difficult for him to access with its pea gravel surface. And not only that, but the play structure itself was not accessible-friendly, some with certain conditions not much to do if unassisted. So something needed to be done.”
Once the initial need was established back in 2016 to create this playground, an official committee with around eight parents and teachers was formed to move the plan from pen to paper.
However, once the project was brought to paper, the magnitude of the development was revealed, seeing a final design drafted by BDI Play Designs Inc. that came out to a total cost of almost $200,000.
With budget restraints and limited cash flow causing an obvious road-block, the town was quick to rally in support of the plan.
“Our first fundraising event was a bake sale held in May 2016 at the Milk River Elementary school,” says Court of the initial efforts made to get this project underway.
“We raised over $1,000, mostly from kids and their loonies and toonies, along with large donations from some local businesses.”
However, the fundraising efforts didn’t stop there and over the past 20 months, the town has come together to host several other events including hot dog stand and lemonade stands, a bottle drive, a New Year’s Eve dance with a silent auction, a cake auction and even a track-a-thon.
Raising over $22,000 alone from these events, the project was also lucky to receive several grants and cash donations from the Richardson Pioneer Foundation, Wawanesa Insurance, Granite Oil, Triwell Oil Construction and the Town of Milk River.
“Many others in our community have also generously given cash donations of substantial size,” added Court.
“This incredible town of ours has come out and rallied behind us time and time again, far surpassing our goals for each fundraising event.”
With a current total of over $270,000 raised for the community project, Court also says that the town only plans to continue to give as the project moves forward into development, donating not only time, but also equipment, labour, trucking and tools to complete this playground for the children of the community.
“We could not have got to this point without the support of this amazing town. We far surpassed our goal of $200,000 and because of that we have been able to purchase a much larger and more amazing play structure.”
With the grand unveiling of the new playground design to the public having taken place late this March, site preparation of the project is set to begin at the start of May, with an expected completion time of just one month later.