Supporting the community with a playground

By Kristena Schutt-Moore

The Woodview Parks and Recreation Committee is working to update and improve the park for children throughout the area. The park is on Woodview Lane next to the Community Building and both the committee and the children who use the park are wanting to see it updated with the ground cover filled up and with accessible equipment for all youth. There are roughly 40 children living at Woodview Lane but they are hoping to build a park that could be used by all youth in the Bancroft area.

To do this the committee is working to apply for grants and fundraise a total of $250,000. One of the ways they are fundraising is through community yard sales and barbecues with the entire street taking part. They have already held one yard sale, but the second yard sale and barbecue will be held on Sunday, Aug. 29 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and will feature everything, hamburgers, hotdogs, drinks, salads and all kinds of snacks.

“This is all for the kids,” says Woodview Parks and Recreation Committee chair Lisa Eastman. “There is not a lot of accessible playground equipment in town. There are a few things at Birds Creek [Park] but not very much actually in town. So we are hoping to get some accessible equipment, some better, bigger equipment so that we can have a better playground not just for our children to enjoy but for other children to enjoy.”

To do this they are also looking to team up with the EarlyON Centre and other organizations. This project is aimed at not only raising the morale of the whole street but the entire Bancroft community.

“The goal is to show that we're actually the majority is families. We [Woodview Lane] is actually a family centre, we are a community center and are a kids centre. And so we are hoping that by asking the public to fundraise with us and to join us on our street and to join us in some of these activities with us, we are hoping to raise awareness that actually, these people aren't too bad. There's people, there's families, there's children. We could have fun here. This is something that could actually be good for everybody,” explains Eastman.

The time frame for the new playground all depends on the fundraising and the opening and availability of grants. However, the goal is to have the equipment in and ready for use in the next two years. The size of the playground and the timeline for its implementation also depends on the fundraising and availability of grants. The next steps that the committee is taking is to hold different fundraiser events once a month on Woodview Lane and to start a bank account so that they can start online fundraising as well.

Those interested in more information can reach Eastmon, and other board members David Masters, Kat Taylor and Heather Parks. They can all be reached at Welcome To Woodview Facebook page. They are currently looking to get local contractors to come and look at the current playground and offer some advice and insight to the project.