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Playparks remain a popular attraction

The City of Estevan’s playparks program continues to offer fun times and enjoyable activities for the young children of Estevan.
Hillcrest Playpark
The Hillcrest Playpark has offered good times for children this summer. Photo courtesy of the City of Estevan.

The City of Estevan’s playparks program continues to offer fun times and enjoyable activities for the young children of Estevan.

Cassidy Reich, who is the playpark co-ordinator for the city this year, said they have had children passing through each day, and the play leaders love to be outside rather than indoors. 

“A lot of the community has been heading out and taking advantage of having a place to go and do something with the kids,” said Reich.

There have been some days in which they’ve been quieter, such as Thursday, when it was a sweltering hot day in the Energy City.

Reich estimates they have had 15-30 kids for crafts in the morning at each park, and around 25-30 youths for afternoon swimming. The children have done a good job of social distancing, because they’re excited to be able to go out and play. Play leaders are doing their best to remind everyone about the new protocols and parents are very helpful at the parks.

“We’ve just adjusted how we do things. So rather than having everyone come into the shack at once to do a craft, we might ask that a few of them play at the park while we get cleaned up and set up again for a few more to join us.”

In other instances, they have given kids crafts that they can do outside, if the weather permits.

“We’ve been doing everything that we can, and that we can think of, to stick within those guidelines,” she said. 

Hillcrest, Hillside and Rusty Duce (Pleasantdale) playparks are operating this year. The swimming pool and crafts at the Churchill park in south-central Estevan are not happening this year, because public health said they would not license the pool until a few upgrades occur. 

“That definitely helped us know what direction we needed to go in, and that’s definitely something in the works for the future to get back to our full strength and get those safety concerns met and alleviated.”

Families can continue to access the park and use its play structures.

At the start of the year, the playpark program announced plans to have play leaders alternate through the different parks, but the feedback from the community and the play leaders themselves was to return to the traditional format of having the play leader remain at their park throughout the summer.

Madison Flaman is at Hillside, Nyla Dyck is working at Rusty Duce and Charlotte Andrist is at Hillcrest. 

Reich believes the playpark program is a valuable one of the community, since it offers programming for free to local children, and it gets kids outside and active. 

“I think everyone really realized how important these opportunities were for kids after the months of being out of school and being stuck at home and in quarantine,  and I think we’re so fortunate to have been able to offer this to the community. We hope people keep joining us and hanging out each day at the park.”

Due to restrictions associated with COVID-19, the playparks program won’t be able to have special events such as their year-end carnival or their pancake breakfast. But they’ve been successful with what they have been able to offer, as the kids have been having lots of fun, and they’re looking forward to an even bigger year in 2021.