Where will the children play?
Our local school – Laura Secord – is trying to win votes for a new playground in a contest held by Aviva Community Fund. Parents at this large inner-city school are doing all they can to get votes online from the community. A couple of days ago, I was shocked (in a good way!) to see this video of our dear friend Carmen, who I have known since she was little.
So please take a moment and vote now to help the little children of my neighbourhood.
A group of dedicated parents are garnering community support at supportourplayground.org. As I write, they need about 600 more votes in the next eight days. Below is more info about it, from the website created by the Laura Secord Parent Advisory Committee.
Background on the school
Laura Secord students are working in portables in the school field while their buildings are seismically upgraded, in case of earthquakes
Laura Secord Elementary is a large inner city school running at full capacity with 640 students from Kindergarten up to Grade 7. We currently have a very small play structure that is full when a single class of 25 students is outside; when all 27 classes are outside our playground is grossly inadequate. The school is home to a number of community outreach programs, including Strong Start, Neighbourhoods of Learning and afterschool care.
Vancouver has very few wheelchair-accessible play areas and Laura Secord would like to be the first school in our area to offer an inclusive play area for kids with disabilities, including physical handicaps and autism. Our goal is to create an inclusive play environment made from safe and sustainable materials that will greatly contribute to the quality of life in our community; a play environment that will attract families outside of school hours and be safeguarded by our neighbours.
Our French Immersion catchment area includes approximately 9,000 kids who would be served by the new playground, including an estimated 350 children with disabilities.
This school really needs a new playground. Great to see!
Ack, I just voted for another school in that competition. A friend of mine posted the link to Selkirk, which is in the same situation. Ridiculous that the government is not funding this, so the schools have to go head-to-head in a competition for charity money to pay for some of it. Aargh! I’m beginning to wonder what awful, chronically underfunded places the public schools in our neighbourhood are going to be like by the time Linnaeus gets there.
The whole community needs this playground, thanks for mentioning it Susan!
Yes. I find it a very odd process – this need to get votes. It’s a whole other blog post, really. It’s kind of “spammy” and not useful in a practical way that the same people should keep voting every day. I don’t usually promote these things but it’s such a good cause, so close by, so important to the neighbourhood. And then I saw the Carmen video!