Roy Wilson, Notre Dame partner up on an outdoor fitness park
If all goes according to plan, Dr. Roy Wilson Learning Centre and Notre Dame Academy will begin construction in May on a new outdoor fitness park, which should benefit both their students and the larger community.
The $225,000 project will feature a Parkour-like circuit and other equipment geared toward older students, and will be located strategically between the facilities.
“It’s going to be geared toward older students, and it will have things like Parkour and balancing beams; so it has more of fitness orientation to it,” confirms Dr. Roy Wilson principal Corey Sadlemyer. “We have received an $80,000 grant from the Community Facility Enhancement Program. We also received some money for pour-inplace and municipal recycling grants. Our school and Notre Dame School are also putting in another $50,000 each to finish this up.”
Sadlemyer says all his students, staff and parents are looking forward to seeing the completed project.
“We are excited. I think it is something which enhances the property over here, and it’s the first thing we have ever done in partnership with Notre Dame.”
Notre Dame Academy principal Neal Siedlecki also has high hopes for the fitness park.
“We want to try to keep our students in our upper grades active during recess times and breaks,” says Siedlecki. “We wanted to build something that is more like an outdoor fitness centre rather than a playground which our students can access during the day for our sports academy and phys-ed programs.”
Siedlecki says the project would never have been possible without extraordinary co-operation between Notre Dame and Dr. Roy Wilson.
“We are very excited to be partners with them. To build a facility like this, neither one of us could build this without the other. We hope to see it being used throughout the day by both schools, and basically, where it’s located, we hope it will become a community spot as well.”