A new accessibility park in Queens is another step closer to becoming a reality after receiving $10,000 in grant money from the Telus Friendly Future Foundation.
The park, planned by the Queens Universally Designed Play park Fundraising Committee, will focus on providing a safe, inclusive space for kids with disabilities in the Queens Region area.
“Queens County has a high number of people per capita of people with different abilities, as I like to say, and South Shore does as well.” said Debbie Wamboldt, chairperson for the park committee, “So as a mom of a child who has autism, it was kind of my dream to have a safe place for him to play,”
The grant will help go towards the initial building of the park, which will be located next to the Queens Place Emera Centre, and will feature an accessible splash pad, ramps instead of stairs, and Braille installments around the park.
“Its a really nice boost for our fundraising, and puts us up above $80,000,” said Wamboldt.
“Altogether we are hoping to raise $450,000 to really make the park a polished, safe place for kids to play. Roughly what we need is around $340,000 for large pieces of equipment, the splash pad, fencing and picnic tables and a few other things. We want to raise a bit extra to really make the park polished and natural.”
While the committee has a large sum saved up already, there is still a long way to go to get to $450,000, but with an upcoming fundraiser yard sale event, as well as other fundraising ideas and grant applications, Wamboldt is confident they can reach their goal.
“we’re applying for grants on a regular basis, and we’ve applied to several big funders as well,” she said, “We’ve also applied through the Region of Queens for a community investment fund grant, so we are waiting to hear back from them on those.”
Wamboldt said the land is ready to be built on, and the committee plans on starting the building process in spring 2020.
Reported by: Cody McEachern
Twitter: @CodyInHiFi
E-mail: mceachern.cody@radioabl.ca
