Volunteers and firefighters were busy building a brand new playground for an inner-city Vancouver school Saturday.
The new “play gym” at Grandview Elementary has been 12 years in the making, principal Risha Golby says.
“We have beautiful grounds here at Grandview, everyone who’s been here knows that, but what we have lacked is a playground,” she said.
Golby said the school raised over $140,000 for the new play space in the Grandview-Woodland area through door knocking and community partnerships.
“This is a community that doesn’t really have access to a playground anywhere close by, we’re in more of a commercial area.”
A “natural playground” was built at the elementary school in 2011 that included features like a hill slide and climbing boulder. The new artificial gym will act as an additional outdoor play area.
Building the playground was a conjunction between Vancouver Firefighter Charities, Habitat for Humanity, and the Grandview Elementary School Community Network.
In a release, Vancouver Firefighter Charities said they were “donating their time and skills to build a gathering point for the community.”
Golby says the plan is for all construction and inspections to be done next week, with hopes to start allowing kids on the playground by Wednesday.