New Accessible Playground Coming to Ingersoll

Monday, 20 April 2015 06:44

The children of Ingersoll can look forward to a new, more accessible place to play this summer.

INGERSOLL - Children in Ingersoll will have the opportunity to enjoy a new accessible playground by the middle of July.

On Friday it was announced the planning process has been completed for a massive playground to be built in Victoria Park. It has been long 6 years and Vice-President, and Co-founder of PlayRight Playgrounds, Adam Funnell, is looking for volunteers as the financial requirements have been met. "We are very excited to announce that the Ontario Trillium Foundation has given us $135 000 in a grant, along with Ingersoll Community Foundation for $50 000, the Town of Ingersoll from their park land dedication fund $40,000 to build what will be the largest playground in Ingersoll."

Other parks in Ingersoll have lived through more than one generation according to Funnell, and it is time for kids to experience a change for the better when it comes to play grounds.

A group assembled in the Victoria Park Community Centre on Friday to acknowledge $225 000 has been raised so far for this project.

Deputy Mayor for the town of Ingersoll, Fred Freeman is a board member, and plans to volunteers to help complete the build in the summer. Freeman says he cannot believe how far along this project has come. "It's amazing how far they have come from just a group of people sitting around a table. I don't want to call it a struggle. It has just been some really good minds that got together - people who are committed and really caring. They just made this happen."

Freeman also says it's all about the kids. "A fully accessible playground: that is it in a nutshell. It is all about accessibility. It is going to be very large and it's going to be really exciting I think the kids are really going to enjoy it."

Upon completion this will be the largest accessible playground in South Western Ontario and has been in the planning stages for 15 years. It wasn't until a group called PlayRight Playgrounds was formed in 2009 by Executive Director with Playground Operation Dave Cripps, when the project really started to take off.

"It will built over the month of June with the excavation being completed then. ABC Recreation will be providing partial install, and then we will be doing a community build. We're aiming for the first week in July. The playgrounds in Ingersoll have all be here since I was young enough to play in the playground, and the accessibility factor wasn't taken into consideration as it is today." Community input will taken into account for the final design of this major playground development.