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A Regina community park project is asking Saskatchewan residents for one last push and a few online votes to help build what organizers say will be the city’s first community park built under Regina’s new full-inclusion standards.
The Eastview Community Park Redevelopment Project has been selected as one of three finalists in Sandbox Mutual Insurance’s Communities at Play competition, putting it in the running for a $25,000 grant.
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“We’re super happy to say that we’ve qualified to be one of the three projects that now gets to be voted on,” said Denis Simard, executive director of the Queen City Eastview Community Association.
“There’s one in Alberta, one in Saskatchewan and one in Manitoba. So there’s no excuse for Saskatchewan not to stand up and come encourage us.”
Voting opened earlier this week and runs until June 7. People can vote by visiting sandbox.ca, finding the Communities at Play section and choosing the Eastview Community Park Redevelopment Project.
Simard said the money would help close the final gap on a project years in the making.
“We’ve got about $100,000 that was missing to button up the project,” he said. “We’ve written some grants, and one of those grants was the SMI Sandbox Insurance grant.”
The total project cost was about $450,000, Simard said. The plan includes a fully accessible playground and a half-court basketball court at Eastview Park.
“This last little section here is just for the park improvements,” he said. “Basically, we’ve got a fully accessible park plus a full half-court basketball court that’s going to be installed.”
Simard said the project fit Sandbox Mutual Insurance’s grant criteria because of its focus on accessibility, inclusion and community use.
“Sandbox typically wants to support projects that are inclusive and that sort of make sure that they’re going to be very community oriented,” he said. “That’s a perfect fit for our park.”
He said the playground would be built in September and would be the first community park in Regina to be built in accordance with the city’s new full-inclusion policies.
“We’re super proud to say that we will be the first community park that will be built, and that’s happening this September,” Simard said.
“We’re just in the final stretch here of trying to put the last dollars together.”
The Eastview project has already received major local support. Simard said the Eastview Community Association’s largest donor has been Eastview Housing Association, which contributed $325,000.
He said the project started because children in the neighbourhood had spent years watching new parks appear elsewhere in Regina.
“They’ve been telling us for 10-plus years right now that they look at all these beautiful parks being built around the city, and they’re always like, ‘Well, why not us? Do we not deserve that?’” Simard said.
After going through regular channels to secure park upgrades, Simard said the neighbourhood decided to take on the challenge itself.
“A few years ago we kind of said, ‘OK, well, can we do it as a neighbourhood?’” he said. “We’re super proud to say that the neighbourhood came together.”
Simard said the park was about more than new equipment. He said organizers hoped it would give children and families a stronger sense of pride in Eastview.
“What we’re hoping is that it’ll elevate the sense of pride, elevate sort of the feeling of our neighbourhood,” he said.
“More than anything else, it’s going to be an intergenerational space that’s going to be fully accessible, so that we can have people of all ages and all mobility types that are going to be able to come out and just have some fun together.”
Simard said one local family had already seen how the accessible design could make a difference. He said a child who is partially visually impaired could look at the park plans and see how the space would include them.
“For us, those are the payoffs for these types of projects,” he said. “It’s knowing that everybody’s going to be included.”
Simard said the vote was now a chance for Regina and the rest of Saskatchewan to help the project through its final stretch.
“We’re looking for Regina and, honestly, the province to sort of help us out and get us through this last little couple steps,” he said.
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