Local not-for-profits look to revamp playground

There’s nothing better than taking to the slides and swings of a park for children and the young at heart. 

The current set-up in Centennial Park, however, doesn’t meet the needs of Jasper, according to Tony Carlton. Carlton, with $1,500 out of his own pocket, started a not-for-profit organization called Slide with Pride to revitalize and replace the current Centennial Park playground. 

“Jasper’s got many parks and obviously many trails,” said Carlton, “but we’ve got more people on a Sunday afternoon in the playground at the school park than anywhere else. But of course, if you remember being a kid, the last place you want to be when you’re out of school is back at school,” he said. 

The current playground is more than 20 years old and does not meet current safety standards, said Carlton. For the new equipment, “we’re leaning on the green end of things,” he said, “with all recycled materials also with a Canadian company. Through and through we’re trying to make everything exactly the way it should be for a park going into a national park.”

The idea for starting Slide with Pride to improve Jasper’s playground came to Carlton on a family trip to Orlando, Florida and Phoenix, Arizona in 2007. “I’ve got a couple of kids, but we travel quite a bit and bottom line is, it doesn’t matter where you are, you always seem to end up at the park,” he said. 

The improvement of the playground is not only for residents, but visitors as well. “If you’re coming for a ball tournament, coming for a soccer game or you’re coming to toboggan, the first place you go when you come into town is you go right to play your ball game and you find out about the restaurants and everything else after...” said Carlton. 

The cost of the new playground will be about $80,000, said Carlton, but he’s not looking for municipal tax dollars to fund the project. Hopefully, grant money, personal donations, as well as local business donations will help cover the cost. 

Slide with Pride has worked closely with the Municipality of Jasper, said Carlton, “because they actually own the park or run the park and so we basically go for donations that look like a user fee.” Residents will be pleased to know that Carlton does not expect future maintenance to cost any more than it currently does.

Carlton is also hoping for the support of local hoteliers, which was the case at the park he visited in Phoenix. “So instead of the taxpayers paying for it...” he said, “it’s a lot easier to say, ‘Hey hotels, you sell out all your kids’ suites, you always tell me that they’re the first to go’,” but none of the hotels indicate where the locations of the parks are in town. 

Carlton hopes to have the grand opening of the park on July 1, but since the new equipment could take 90 days to manufacture, the order needs to be put in soon to make Canada Day. 

To donate, visit the website www.slidewithpridejasper.com or call 780-852-0139.