For the last six or seven years, the school community council of Wawota School and many residents of Wawota dreamed of new playground equipment for their school, children and grandchildren.
Like many small communities of approximately 500-600 residents, the pre-requisite for accomplishing a dream is “many hands make light work.” The current leads on the Wawota Playground Committee were bursting with excitement to share the details of this journey.
Both Dayna Coffey and Lynette Cheveldae were laughing and joking as they talked about the many hands and many years of fundraising that let to the installation on Sept. 23 and 24. Hosting golf tournaments at Golf Kenosee, Barbecue Survivor, and volunteering at slow pitch tournaments filled their summers’ months.
The committee added a little flare to Wawota’s Heritage Days with a dunk tank and Saskatchewan Roughriders team members coming out for some encouragement and fun. Many members of the committee over the years have also volunteered at catering an RM supper, being a part of Wawota’s Haunted House and selling poinsettias.
The Wawota playground committee members also felt it especially important to get the kids involved who would enjoy the structures on the playground, so they held kid and teen dances and sold pizza for lunches at the school. Donations from the greater community topped it all off to raise over $71,000, which was needed for the structure alone.
This is an amazing list of a variety of cool fundraisers that have provided opportunities for relationships while raising funds for a great cause.
The RMs of Walpole and Wawken donated all the pea gravel needed for the entire project and the ladies said they could not even guess the thousands of dollars that amounted to, but they were sure it was well over $10,000. What a gift!
Coffey and Cheveldae spoke with relief in their voices as they remembered the over 15-20 individuals being a part of the committee over the years, the companies who donated resources and staff, and the volunteers who showed up to erect the actual structures as the children watched.
The ladies tried to convey the feelings they felt with those eyes watching them. The overarching theme of the entire conversation was that this was a huge team effort and could have never been accomplished without all the hands who were a part of it, and these women could never fully thank everyone enough.
The volunteer list was quite extensive but there was a very long list of businesses that sent representatives to give to this project. Vermillion sent seven volunteers, Steel Reef sent five and an employee representing Pure Chem came to give a hand. Rococo Construction and C&M Homes were volunteering for the day along with numerous community members.
Adam Brehaut from Hat Creek Welding was also there for the day to help out. Josh Kosior from Moose Mountain Industries played a huge part in prepping the site for installation and volunteered the day of. Ed Young from Clay Brook Contracting was there to help whenever needed him throughout the entire process. Carpenter Farms brought a tractor in to help with the spreading of the gravel, which was a huge addition to all the help.
They would be remiss to not mention Blackwater Septic and Vac and their wonderful contribution.
Coffey and Cheveldae painted an amazing picture of the final moments of assembling the playground. They described those final moments with the group of over 27 people, standing around watching the inspector evaluate their workmanship… and then, as the official ‘okay’ was given for the children to be able to use the equipment, 3:24pm on Sept. 24 – the school bell rings!
“That was the best day ever! To watch those children come running out of the school to see it finished, a playground for them,” said Coffey.
“Yeah, that moment made all the headaches along the way worth it,” added Cheveldae.
Many hands, consistently and persistently giving their resources over the time…that is how a dream comes to life!
