After winning the British Columbia Automobile Association’s Play Here initiative on June 21, Cache Creek Elementary School (CCES) staff and students planned what they wanted for a playground, and last week, they put out the call out for volunteers to help with the playground construction.
That call was answered and local residents showed up to help from Oct. 11 to Oct. 13.
School principal Brooke Haller says they got the number of volunteers they required on all three days.
They needed six local volunteers on Oct. 11 to help with site preparation and another half dozen to help the 30 BCAA volunteers who worked on the assembly portion of the equipment on Oct. 12, Haller explains.
“BCAA brought those people up from the Lower Mainland and they worked from noon to 4 p.m. and they did as much as they could get done.”
The big day was on Saturday (Oct. 13) when organizers needed, and got, 30 local volunteers to finish the assembly portion of the project.
They were certainly busy little beavers as they shovelled, mixed and poured cement and assembled the last pieces of equipment.
“We had a very busy weekend. We have a little more to do – site preparation, fill in some holes and put down some landscaping fabric and then we can do the [engineered wood] chips.
“We had some real troopers on Saturday who worked really, really hard all day long.”
Haller says she thinks it was exciting for everyone who was there to see the playground equipment going up.
“Throughout the day, people were coming to check it out and they were excited. We had some kids peering down from the top of the hill, so everybody is excited.”
She notes Jeff Tomey has been a great help during the project.
“He was a super help from start to finish with his skills, equipment and his labour.
“He got all of the ground work together. We didn’t know what we were doing.”
She adds Tomey was in communications with BCAA throughout the whole process, and without him and his equipment, they wouldn’t have been able to get the project done.
Hall says Harvey and Suzie Krause, who have grandchildren at the school and others who will be going to the school in the future, purchased the Century Dome structure, which is the first of its kind in Canada.
The size of the playground structure is massive.
“When you see the 3D renderings and the aerials, you know it’s going to be awesome, but it’s a totally different thing when you see it in real life.
“It’s a pretty impressive structure. In every stage, it just got bigger and bigger.
“It was pretty cool to watch it mushroom out on Friday and Saturday.”
Haller says the teachers are going to go through some safety lesson with their students before they can play on the playground structure.
“The kids are really excited, so we’ll be limiting the number of students who can be on the structure at one time. It will be just until they get used to it.”
She says people should check out the Cache Creek Elementary School Facebook page because they will be announcing when it’s open to the public.
The playground will be open to the public during after school hours and when school is not in session.
“That park hasn’t been used very much by the public, but I think that will change now. People will be bringing their kids to play on the equipment after school.”
Haller says she wants to thank Coast Range Concrete for help with the concrete and Home Hardware for materials for the Saturday build.
She also thanks all of the hard-working volunteers.
“It’s extremely hard work. It was difficult labour and we’re so grateful for everything that everyone donated from start to finish.”
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