The fundraising effort to rebuild the Father Gorman Community School playground has reached its goal.
The final dollars in the bucket are thanks to the Knights of Columbus Father Dobson Council #3553.
According to Nigel McCarthy, director of education for the Lloydminster Catholic School Division, the extra funds will make even more possible. The plans now go beyond just physical accessibility for students in wheelchairs.
With this in mind, they thought of communication difficulties for nonverbal children outside, and how they could fix it.
Inside the school for students who are nonverbal, is a communication board. It helps them tell their caretakers what they need. Thanks to the generosity of the Knights, there will be one outside in the rebuild too.
"We thought, wouldn't it be nice to have a board like that out here all the time so you wouldn't have to worry about where the device is," said McCarthy. "Because when you're seven, you just want to giv'er, right?"
The board will close the loop so all the kids outside can communicate with their friends.
McCarthy expects the playground will attract a lot of different community engagement on weekends and after school as well.
Chase Carr is the Deputy Grand Knight of the local chapter.
"We do a lot of community involvement through different charities and activities," said Carr. "One of our core responsibilities is people, special needs kids specifically. And when Nigel approached us to upgrade the accessibility aspect of this, we jumped on top of that right away."
Insurance covered the cost of replacing the original playground, which was over $190,000. However, the generous donations listed below will make the new playground much more extensive, at 6,300 sq. ft., with more amenities.
It will include ramps for accessibility, accessible swings, and even a new set of north-facing, steel slides. The central part of the structure will be built on donated pea gravel to reduce its flammability in case of another incident.
The LCSD also thanked Peavey Mart for getting the ball rolling, which led to the final list of donations.
Peavey Mart Lloydminster the Original $5000 cash
- Ironwill Metal Works ($5000)
- Cenovus ($5000)
- Westridge Buick GMC ($2500)
- Feldspar Inc. (inkind pea gravel and material) ✨Sveer Maintenance LTD. (inkind trucking and hauling)
- Home Hardware Lloydminster ($1,100 for timbers and material)
- Darv's Auto Body Lloydminster ($500)
- City of Lloydminster for stepping up immediately to support as a building partner as well.
- Knights of Columbus ($20,000)
- Bexson Construction (inkind excavation)
In the end, the cash donations totalled $40,000, which doesn't include all the in-kind work being done. The rebuild is set to begin right after Thanksgiving; weather permitting, it will be open for recess on Oct. 25.
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