IRON RIVER – After three years of fundraising efforts, the Iron River School Parent Advisory Council has reached its goal of raising $400,000 for a new and expanded playground at the school.
Taking the fundraising goal over the finish line was a $137,000 contribution provided by the MD of Bonnyville that was funded from the municipality’s Park and School Reserve.
The decision to fund the remainder of the project was made by council during a regular council meeting on Feb. 9, following a presentation by Jennifer Wakulchyk and Alisha Kunec, the chair and vice chair of the Parent Advisory Council for Iron River School.
MD councillors heard that following their initial $125,000 donation to the project in 2019, the parent group was able to raise an additional $117,025 on their own through various grants and fundraising events.
The push to build a new park by the current parent council started in February of 2019. However, Wakulchyk told councillors that before she started on the parent council, paperwork showed that previous groups that had tried to replace the 30-year-old playground but were unable to gain traction on the project.
"It's really a community hub, which is why we believe it is a focal point of our community and why we want to replace this playground,” she said, noting the difficulty of trying to raise funds when other needs in the school have taken precedent.
To that point, Coun. Dana Swigart voiced his concerns about the fact that the playground is on property owned by the Northern Lights Public Schools (NLPS) Division but hasn’t seen any financial support from the school division itself.
“This raises a red flag. I’m disappointed that Northern Lights has never invested in playgrounds for kids like Ardmore School. All of these schools had to (raise their own funds) as you guys did.”
Swigart also asked the presenters if they had discussed land and ownership agreements relating to the playground if the school was ever shut down.
“It’s not like they haven’t tried in the past... so I would at least hope that you have some kind of agreement with Northern Lights if they decide to do something like that you still have a community playground.”
Wakulchyk and Kunec stated that although they didn’t have those types of discussions with the school board, they could not foresee that type of decision being made. They also added that the Parent Advisory Council would fiercely oppose such an action.
“I hate to cast a shadow on it, because I think it’s a great program. It’s just there are lots of schools that need playgrounds, and does the MD fund them all or does the school division get involved? It’s a hard one,” said Swigart.
In response, Kunec said, “People don’t realize that the schools don’t pay for a playground. They assume a school needs a new playground you go to the school board, and they do it – that is not the case. So that is why we are working so hard.”
Following the presentation, Coun. Don Slipchuk for Ward 4, which Iron River falls within, offered his full support in funding the remainder of the project.
“I just want to say that this is very important for the community because we see that playground used seven days a week. There are lots of young families in that area,” said Slipchuk. “This is something that we should help with, especially because of what the kids have gone through in the past few years.”
Coun. Darcy Skarsen also voiced his support. “I’ve watched this group for three years work at this and it’s easy to get behind groups that put in the effort and the time to do as much as they can to fundraise... I’m 100 per cent in support of this.”
Playground timeline
Receiving the final contribution for the Iron River School playground, the parent council hopes the new equipment will be installed this summer and that students will be able to play on it by fall.
The playground design and equipment, which was voted on by Iron River students, will be ordered by March to make sure the equipment arrives in time to begin construction as soon as the school breaks from summer holidays in June.
Wakulchyk told council that if all goes according to plan, the playground can be built and certified by the time students return to classes in the fall.
Construction of the new playground will involve hired contractors while also relying heavily on volunteers and work-in-kind from local businesses, she said.
The park's old equipment will likely be auctioned off as a way to continue fundraising for the school.
School board offers a thank you
While MD council continued their Wednesday meeting, word of the playground’s final funding had already travelled to the NLPS Board of Trustees meeting. Trustees were thrilled by the news.
During the NLPS meeting on Feb. 9, Trustee Debra Lozinski asked her fellow board members, “Would it be appropriate for us as a board to send a thank you to the MD of Bonnyville for supporting our kids?”
She added that the donation offered by the MD to the rebuild the park was substantial, and “I think it’s worth a thank you… it’s huge thank you very much.”
The board voted in favour of Lozinski’s motion to send a letter of gratitude to the MD.
In total, the MD of Bonnyville donated $262,000 to the replacement and expansion of the Iron River School playground.
