Playground for Rural First Nation Community

Currently our project is on hold due to weather condition and snow.

Due to snow and frozen ground this project is on hold until spring when weather system changes.

Mean while we are working to raise more funds to be able to complete this project. Unfortunately there is still a big gap in funds to be able to get this project complete. We reached out to a few corporations and NGOs to support this project as it will directly impact the children's mental health especially with all the recent traumatic events such as wild fires, mass grave, and land slide that happened around the community.

Our playground material is stored in Squamish British Columbia.

我们准备好开始了construction and installation of this playground project for the summer of 2022, another wildfire started in the area and caused emergency evacuation for the entire community of the Lytton West Side. This was the second massive wildfire in the area second year in the row.

First wildfire in the area destroyed nearly 90% of the town. This second fire spread on the other side of the Fraser River and destroyed some of the West Side community, where the playground is planned to be installed.

Once the wildfire passed through the town, due to hazardous material there was no construction possible.

Meanwhile we have been working on the refurbishing the playground and hiring team in the area.

If the winter does not arrive early we are hopping to complete this project this year.

Links:

• Report on the wildfire

Recently the snow in the West Side Lytton has melted and we are able to move to the site to build the playground.

有这个项目暂缓由于pandemic, forest fire, flood, landslide, snow, etc. but now its time and we are going to complete this project.

We have picked up the playground from town of Merritt and transported to Squamish to complete the refurbishing/ up cycling. (Photos attached) Currently The Power Of Play team is working with the playground manufacture and band to repurpose the playground.

The repurposing process will include going through all the play element pieces and component, identifying what is refurbish-able and what needs to be replaced. Then we start with sanding, removing rust, powder coating, and replacing broken and missing pieces.

Once playground is ready, it will be shipped to West Side Lytton to be installed.

Meanwhile we are calling for volunteers and businesses to partner up with us to bring the power of play to this well deserved community.

We are planning to start the installation by late July.

Thanks to all the donors we are closer to complete this project.

We are working to complete this project by end of spring 2022. Due to extreme weather and heavy snow we cannot start the construction until beginning of April this year.

So far we have raised over 40% of the fund required for this project. Mid February we are launching a campaign among our donor list to raise the remaning fund required to complete this project.

From end of March we will ship the equipment and playground elements into the land.

We have a large group of local volunteers enrolled to support this project.

The First Nation community of Lytton has been facing multiple challenges and dealt with a few natural disasters during the past 7 months which has postponed our project.

Until March, 20th/2021 the community was dealing with the spread of covid and it was in full isolation. Right after that because of sudden heat, water level came very high and the cable ferry, which is the only way to access the community, stopped working for a month. We had no way to enter the community.

On June, 24th/2021 a mass grave of 215 First Nation children was found and the community was ingrievingand was not able to receive us to do the project.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57592243

End of June 2021 wild forest fire started and in a few days it burnt down around 90% of the town of Lytton

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-wildfires-lytton-july-1-2021-1.6087311

When the community started to coming back to town around the beginning of August another forest fire started on the Westbank and everyone had to evacuate again.

On August, 17th there was a mudslide near Lytton and the highway was shut down. We were not able to enter the community.

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/large-mudslide-leads-to-closure-on-highway-1-near-lytton-b-c-1.5550211

After all that has happened, the community and the children need this playground more than ever. It is very important to create a play space for the children to deal with the trauma and cope with their loss.

We are now waiting to get the green light from the community to enter the area.

Links:

• Children mass grave
• Forest Fire
• Mudslide