Opening of Kin Accessible Playground June 19 2008 11am at Towne Centre Park

Provincial Government Gives Coquitlam Kinsmen a $100,000 grant March 30 2007
City of Coquitlam announces accessible playground on website August 20 2007
Iain Black MLA announces Coquitlam Kin accessible Playground May 28 2008

History

"Once upon a time my daughter Carlie who worked in the Burnaby School District as a Youth Councilor at the time came home and said hey Mom, I know a good project for your Kinette Club. The week previous she knew we were looking to come up with a substantial project that we could all work on.

She explained to me that in her job while working with the kids that she noticed that the children in the school that were mentally and physically challenged were never able to play on the playground, they could only stand back and watch all the other children have fun. She found this to be disturbing and was very surprised after research that Central Park in Burnaby was the only playground in the area that was somewhat inclusive. She thought that it would be a great project to somehow build an inclusive playground in our community.

Carlie and I researched information on various inclusive playgrounds in Canada, USA, Australia, and the United Kingdom. We then researched playground companies and put together some ideas and I brought it to the club's next meeting. Everyone thought it was a wonderful idea. Now the big challenge was how could we get this off the ground. We were able to make this dream come true with a lot of hard work from all our Kinette members, as well as Kin Malcolm, partnering with the City of Coquitlam, donations from the Provincial Governments Direct Access Capital Grant, the Kinsmen Foundation, Westminster Credit Union, VanTel Community Fund, many club fundraisers and the backing of the Kinsmen Club of Coquitlam. It has been a lot longer process than we had planned, however the Grand Opening is getting closer and I look forward to seeing you all there."

Vicki Collins
Co-Chair Accessible Park Project

Playground Construction Gallery