May 6th, 2015 was a snowy, blustery, miserable day outside, but in the local McDonalds restaurant the atmosphere was filled with smiles, warmth and a lot of contentment. Pipestone Flyer staff joined a multitude of volunteers from throughout the community to participate in the annual McHappy Day fundraiser. The management and staff at McDonalds and the volunteers spent the day preparing and serving food and beverages knowing their efforts would bring the Boys and Girls Club one step closer to completing the outdoor playground project upgrade at the Early Learning and Child Care Centre (Daycare).
Since McHappy Day was introduced in 1977, the national one-day fundraising event has raised more than $50 million for Ronald McDonald House and local charities. One dollar from every Big Mac, Happy Meal and McCafe beverage sold at McDonald’s on McHappy Day was designated to help fund the Ronald McDonald House and the local charity, Wetaskiwin Boys and Girls Club.
Leah Hnatiuk, Child Care Centre Director explains the importance of McHappy Day. “With the project plans in place of what is best for the physical and mental healthy development of young preschoolers, McHappy Day takes us one step closer to our dream.”
The outdoor playground project will include learning activities such as gardening with raised garden boxes and a green house, 3 water outlets for water play and gazebos to provide shade until more trees are planted. The Pour and Place is an expensive addition but will create a much better play area by replacing the pea gravel with a more user-friendly rubber surfacing. The new playground surface will provide a more friendly play area and will require little need for maintenance. Moving a fence to enlarge the toddler area and the creation of a circle bike path will complete this phase of play area upgrades.
The community has been extremely supportive of the playground project upgrade. Debbie Pearson, Fund and Communications Coordinator for the Wetaskiwin Boys and Girls Club explains, “As of today we have received $45,000 which includes donations from AB Tire Recycling Authority, Deliotte Charitable Foundation, Eastlink and the Gord Bamford Charitable Foundation. In kind support from PGA Architects has been tremendous by putting our plan to paper and Wetaskiwin Ready Mix has offered us cement when we are in the build process”.
To learn more or to register your child in an accredited daycare facility in Wetaskiwin contact Leah at 780-352-4632 ext. 6, Wetaskiwin Early Learning and Child Care Centre. For more information regarding the playground project or to make a donation please contact Debbie Pearson, Fund and Communications Coordinator at 780-352-4643 ext. 32.
The Boys and Girls Club of Wetaskiwin is a community based non-profit organization that has been providing programs to support the healthy physical, educational and social development of children and youth in Wetaskiwin since 1988.