Kiwanis natural playground coming soon

By KELLEN TANIGUCHI on May 25, 2021.

ktaniguchi@medicinehatnews.com@@kellentaniguchi

The Kiwanis Club of Medicine Hat has put roughly $20,000 into its latest project – building a natural playground at Kiwanis Central Park.

On May 18, the Kiwanis Club, the City of Medicine Hat and contractor Rocky View projects held a groundbreaking ceremony for the new playground.

The playground is made up of natural materials like tree trunks, says Perry Bergum, parks chairman with the Kiwanis Club of Medicine Hat. He says the structure will be built with oak coming from Ontario and there will be benches around the playground made from cottonwood trees.

“We’ve done quite a few workshops with the company that does design for these types of playgrounds and their research has shown that kids get more play time in a natural playground,” said Bergum. “We’re excited to see this go ahead. It’s a little different than what you see in a lot of the school playgrounds and it is the first natural playground in Medicine Hat.”

Construction is already underway, but Bergum says the weather over the weekend may have set things back a little bit. However, he is expecting the playground to be ready to go sometime between the middle and end of June.

Phase two of the project will include a sand and water play area, which will require additional funding, says Bergum. He adds fundraising has been more difficult during the pandemic.

Bergum says the new playground is another thing to add to an ongoing list of facility upgrades at the park.

“We sponsor the park, our name is on the park – Kiwanis Central Park – and we’ve been doing various projects there. I think the last one we did … was five or six years ago, we did an upgrade of the washrooms to be handicap accessible and we added the patio area out there by the water park. So, it’s just ongoing for us to keep improving and adding new things,” he said.

The structure was originally planned to be ready for last summer and then was moved to October due to COVID-19. However, things didn’t come into place for that deadline to be met, but Bergum says he’s excited to see how the community responds to the natural playground this summer.

“I just think that we’re very much looking forward to having the first natural playground and seeing how that works out and maybe it will create some interest to develop that type of a playground in other areas of the city,” he said.

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