Kids sat with barely concealed excitement at the new Landing Trail Intermediate School (LTIS) playground.
Although they’d had a chance to play on the equipment during the rest of the week, Friday was the grand opening and they were to be given a longer recess to test it out.
“We’re excited it’s finally open. It’s been a lot of hard work and the kids are loving it,” said Nancy Rosen, a member of the LTIS fundraising committee.
The plan for a new playground at the school started in 2011 when the committee was formed.
It took years of planning and researching to reach this stage. They even surveyed the students to see what they wanted.
“The Grade 7s, now Grade 9 students at EPC, created a playground survey and they asked the students, ‘What do you want to see on the playground?’” explained Rosen.
“Then we met with five different playground companies. After we met with the companies, we chose to survey the students a second time.
“This time, we asked them to chose a style of equipment and to chose the colours of equipment they would like to see.”
Rosen added that kind of input was necessary.
“It was important to us to have the students’ input to help create an appropriate playground,” she said.
The final stages took place over the summer, with the official groundbreaking taking place in mid-June. The installation was done by professionals, but all of the prep work and final stages was done by volunteers.
“It all has to start with a dream and I think a huge acknowledgement to a lady and her family who went to Whitecourt, saw a structure similar to this and decided that’s a fantastic part of a playground,” said Mark Neaves, another member of the committee, during his speech at the grand opening.
“So, I think we have to acknowledge Nancy Rosen and her husband Jonas and her family; they basically babysat and oversaw the complete construction this summer and sacrificed their summer holidays to see this done,” he added.
After a series of speeches, a ribbon cutting ceremony and members of the Aspen View Public School Board “inaugurating” the playground, the air was filled with laughter and yelling as students raced to cram every game and slide they could into the half an hour they had for their recess.
