I grew up in Yorkton, a small city in southeast Saskatchewan that is part of the perogie belt. My parents moved our family there when I was 2 and built a house in a prime location for the baby of the family (my siblings were all teenagers). We built right across from an open space that developers had promised would turn into a park and skating rink. I don’t remember playing there before the park was built but I swear to you that I have a very clear memory one summer of coming back from a trip in our motorhome and discovering that the park was built!!! I can remember racing across the street with my dad and checking out every last surface space of Heritage Heights Park. It would have been somewhere around 1982.
I loved that park and spent many hours there as a little girl. I was so fortunate to live right across the street. Bullies didn’t stand a chance when I’d put my hand on one hip and point to my house with the other, “You’d better not!”
Years later, that park has been torn down and replaced with a brand new modern park with plastic pieces of equipment that cause less splinters than the wood before and more creative climbing structures than the wooden beams across the tire swings that were the highest point we could climb to back in the 80’s. It still feels pretty sweet to take my kids back to that park when we’re in my hometown, point to the house across the street that was sold long ago, and explain that’s where mommy grew up.
I’m glad that my community had the funding to make my childhood park better. What about yours? Do you have a park, a children’s spot, or somewhere in your community that you’ve thought about and said, “This could be better…this could be amazing,” but wondered where the cash could come from to do it?
Here’s how.
Kraft Canada and TSN have come together, again, for the country’s biggest summertime celebration! The award-winning Kraft Celebration Tour is gearing up for its fifth consecutive year, getting ready to once again encourage Canadians to nominate their city or town for a chance to win $25,000 toward a community improvement project to re-vamp an existing public space or create a brand new one! Each winning community will also host one of 10 live broadcasts of Canada’s most-watched sports news program, TSN, as part of this summer’s cross-country tour from August 16-25.
Nominations are only open until June 7th, so hurry and head over to the Kraft Celebration Tour page and nominate your community today! Why shouldn’t your community be among the winners?! Porcupine Plain, SK was a winner in 2012, Kyle, SK and Estevan, SK in 2011, Outlook, SK in 2010 and Watrous, SK in 2009!! Go Saskatchewan! Go parks across Canada (but hey, I’m a SK girl so I’m going to root for my province!!)
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