A Saskatoon teacher is aiming to raise thousands of dollars to replace two local playgrounds she said are aged and too small for the size of the school they serve.
On Friday afternoon, Kelli Fredlund pointed out damaged wood and broken equipment at two playgrounds near Lakeridge Public School to a reporter. She said the 27-year-old structures have broken down and no longer meet modern safety standards.
“It was wooden platforms that were breaking, slides have been breaking, we’ve had to replace some swings,” said Fredlund, who teaches at the school and is a mother of two children enrolled there.
“Small components can’t even be used anymore, just because they’re old and you can’t even get the parts to fix them.”
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In 2014, Fredlund and others formed a committee to address the situation and have raised $240,000 in grants and individual contributions. One of the groups to grant them funding is the Saskatoon Community Foundation.
“They were well organized and were poised to be successful and we could help them with that,” said Don Ewles, the foundation’s grants and communications manager.
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“Really it was about trying to support kids and trying to help develop opportunities for kids in our community.”
Fredlund said the committee currently has enough money to replace one of the structures this summer; however they’re still short on the other.
“The entire project is about $345,000 from start to finish,” Fredlund said.
“It’s going to be an uphill climb, but we’ve had great support from our parent council, from our community council and from the community at large.”
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Fredlund hoped to add Saskatoon’s city council to that list when she spoke at its monthly meeting this past Monday. She told the group that they are working to replace the city-owned play structure on the site, which is “no longer adequately serving the needs of the community in its present state.”
Fredlund argued that the playground is undersized for the 635 student enrolment of Lakeridge Public School and lacked accessible features for special needs students. Saskatoon Mayor Don Atchison said Friday that he supported Fredlund’s effort.
“We need to have special needs playground equipment everywhere so that all children can play together,” Atchison said in an interview.
“I am hoping that we can still somehow be able to help them get to that goal,” he added.
Fredlund said if the group can find the additional funding, a second new playground could be constructed at some point in 2017.
“We just want to make sure that everything is as safe and as good as it could possibly be in our community,” she said.
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