Nature’s playground comes to Bethlehem Place
The fake turf, concrete and interlocking bricks are gone. Gone too are the primary coloured slides, bulky plastic cars and rubberized play surface.
The playground at Bethlehem Place in St. Catharines is getting a natural facelift.
By the end of May, the children who play with their parents in the area behind the six-storey apartment building on Welland Avenue, will be able to crawl through a log tunnel, dig their fingers into muddy sand, explore a sideways tree climber, or create drama among the wacky posts.
It’s all part of a $124,000 project to naturalize the area, said Jennifer Sinclair, philanthropy manager at Bethlehem Housing and Support Services.
The playground is used by the families who live for up to one year in its transitional housing units, or by the public. The space is part of the community of Ontario Early Years Centres, and is accessible from the street.
The families – men, women and children – who live here are in transition, usually from an emergency shelter, to more permanent housing. They have been homeless, due to issues of poverty, disability, mental health challenges, domestic violence and family breakdown. Here, they receive individual help and group support for a wide range of life skills, she said.
For them, a natural playground will not only be a place for their children to play, but could be part of their healing, said Sinclair.
“A lot of residents have dealt with trauma,” she said. “Connecting with nature can be very therapeutic.”
A space filled with trees, logs and nature allows them “a space to re-establish and deepen those relationships in an open space,” she said.
Children who might otherwise have limited opportunities to connect with green space, can interact with nature along with their parents. Even older children will have interest in exploring the area, she said. Natural features will include: A large tree with branches placed on its side for children to climb on. Log clusters and stumps. A boulder to climb on. Log bench and a wood bench that spirals around a tree. Real grass. A sand pit with water feature. Trees and shrubs. The current playground was 27 years old, and had seen better days, said Sinclair. The idea for a natural playground began several years ago, and with financial help from its three main sponsors — Wise Guys Charity, Meridian Credit Union and the Niagara Community Foundation – along with other supporters, it became possible. Construction by Bienestock Natural Playgrounds is set to begin May 15, and the project should be finished by the end of the month, said Sinclair.
Volunteers who helped with the destruction of the old playground saved the organization some $5,000, she said.
Staff at Brock University removed more than 5,000 interlocking bricks, relocated plants and shrubs and cleaned up garbage around the buildings. A group of students from the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program removed a concrete retaining wall, large tree stumps and a metal fence.