Carlington community hoping to raise funds for new school playgrounds

A patch of dirt is what’s left of one playground for children living in Carlington. A few weeks ago, that structure was torn down.

“We just saw it was demolished,” said Arianne Richeson, a co-chair of the parent council at W.E. Gowling Public School. “Honestly it’s really sad to have a bunch of tiny people playing in dirt.”

The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board says the kindergarten structure was deemed unsafe.

A few metres away, Richeson’s kids play on a structure that will be torn down in two to three years. She was told replacing both play structures would cost around $300,000 and it would be up to the community to come up with the cash.

“So you can imagine that’s a lot of pizza lunches and chocolate fundraisers,” said Richeson.

Nearby businesses are helping, including Bowman’s Bar and Grill. They’re donating $5 for every burger sale to the playground fund.

The parent council managed to raise $100,000, but they’ve been left in the dark with no word on if and when a new structure would be in place.

“We also have the money to have shovels in the ground,” said Richeson. “We were hoping to do that this summer when kids are out of school.”

“As a parent and community fundraiser, I feel like we’ve done our part and suddenly there’s no playground happening. We don’t understand why,” said Bowman’s Bar and Grill owner Peter West.

The school board tells CTV News Ottawa the play structure should be completed by next summer. The board has committed $25,000 toward the project, but many wonder why the responsibility falls on parents to dig up the remaining funds and apply for grants.

“For any school community this would be huge, but for Carlington, where things are economically challenged, it’s certainly very difficult,” said Richeson. “I think the school board needs to look at this matter and say, for school communities who have challenges raising that money, how best can we help?”

The school board says it has financial challenges, too.

“Play structures are expensive and we have a $19.9-million hole in our current budget so we don’t have the money to fund all the things we would love to fundraise,” said OCDSB chair Lyra Evans.

Richeson says she wants the designs for the second structure so they can begin applying for grants before it is torn down.

“We can't raise the next 200k without being able to apply for grants and we need the plans to apply for the grants,” said Richeson.