Despite having served the students of St. Augustine for the entire school year, the staff and students of the school held the ribbon cutting ceremony for their newest playground only last week.
“We’ve had it for the whole year and we’ve just been trying to co-ordinate everybody,” said principal Curt Baron with a laugh. He had hoped to have the ceremony last fall but when an early winter hit, that idea froze in its tracks.
Back in 2009, St. Augustine had applied for a provincial grant to have their red playground refurbished. They were denied and turned to the St. Thomas Aquinas school division for the money, which came in the form of a loan.
However, staff still felt the playground was too far away from the older grades and was overly congested. They decided to go back to square one and applied to a grant for a brand new playground.
Karen Williams, treasurer of Friends of St. Augustine School, says the provincial grant provided the project with $51,226 out of the $103,000 total cost. “We need to thank them for sure . . . They were very generous,” said Baron.
The school had to pay the difference. “We had a different fundraising function,” said Williams. “We had to have our money upfront before we got the grant money.”
Parents, including the Friends of St. Augustine School, put huge amounts of effort into the project, from the early fundraising efforts to throwing in their time and elbow grease at the end of the project when it was determined low-lying portions of the school’s grounds would have to be drained in order for the playground to be used year round.
Lacombe-Ponoka MLA Rod Fox also attended the ribbon cutting ceremony to give his congratulations to the school, dubbing it “the little engine that could” after staff and parents refused to give up in the face of rejection, always pushing toward what was best for the students.
“Through hard work and determination on the part of parents, teachers, students, families, and community members alike, this new playground is now playing a huge role in allowing children to explore and play,” said Fox.