Seven Persons receives generous grant

By Carlie Connolly
On Feb. 10, students of Seven Persons got to hear the exciting news at their school assembly of their new playground being installed. On that day, Seven Persons received the Community Facility Enhancement Program Grant of $100,000. A couple of the local MLA’s, Blake Pederson and Drew Barnes were there to present the cheque that will be applied to the new playground that they are hoping will be up and running at the end of May this year.
The presentation at the assembly showed some images of the structure that will be erected along with capitalizing other events that will be going on at the school.
The discussion of the new playground occurred back in 2013 when the project was approved, and it will include a fitness centre component, which will include an outdoor elliptical machine, chin up bars and many more exciting components that are unique compared to the everyday playground.
The school also received a recycling grant that was close to $13,000 dollars, and that will cover the surface going under the fitness stations.
In total the project is estimated at around $300,000 once they consider the land preparation, removal of existing equipment that no longer meets code and the structure themselves. The $100,000 they just received has been a large sum to really help boost the project.
“It’s huge and then we had Cypress County give us a grant of $50,000 dollars, so we’ve been very fortunate in the amount of donations from businesses, families, municipalities. Everyone’s just really stepped up,” Principal of Seven Persons, Sherry Rissling said
She said that the parent council has been integral in the preparation of the project. Completing paperwork required for grant proposals, sending out letters and composing donation requests are just some of the preparations they have done.
“They’ve been really the driving force.”