SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - While his friends are climbing, sliding, and enjoying the N.J. Macpherson School playground, Riley Olford, 4, sits on the outside looking in, as his wheelchair can't traverse the sand and his legs won't let him climb the equipment.

Riley Olford, 4, pictured here on Oct. 27 in front of NJ Macpherson, can't get to the playground on his wheelchair. The school is hoping to change that in an online bid to get funding for wheelchair friendly playground equipment. - Tim Edwards/NNSL photo

"He can't get out to the playground. We can take him in his wheelchair, out to the end of the concrete, and then usually I've just been carrying him," said Lydia Smith, one of Olford's pre-school teachers.

"Even then most of the time he just lays on the ground because he can't get on the equipment unless I put him on it," said Smith.

"He has no independence in the playground."

Olford's father, Craig Olford, said the more Riley uses his legs, the stronger they get. Riley has a type of cerebral palsy called spastic dysplasia.

Seeing this situation – and in anticipation of another student in a wheelchair that will be enrolling next year – the Parent Advisory Committee (PAC) for N.J. Macpherson is trying to find a way to give these children a decent recess.

"Though the school itself is wheelchair-accessible, our playground really isn't," said Michelle Krause, principal of N.J. Macpherson.

Krause said there is equipment available which is accessible to kids in wheelchairs, as well as a ground cover that could replace the sand – firm enough to wheel on, but soft enough to be safe if any kids fall on it.

"Of course, all these things are really expensive and it's not something we can do with our school budget or just with our PAC fundraising," said Krause.

Though they don't have the final cost nailed down yet, Krause said that a large but basic piece of equipment goes for about $30,000 to $40,000.

On top of that, they would have to get the ground cover and pay for installation.

In light of this, one PAC member, Tina Drew, found a website called the Aviva Community Fund.

This website is holding a competition that accepts ideas for things that will make a "positive change in your community" from places all over Canada, according to the website's description.

The most popular ideas will get a share of a $500,000 fund, based on need.

The first rounds of the competition, to narrow down the field, are open votes by visitors to the website.

The final ideas in the competition will be vetted by a panel of judges.

Drew put up the school's idea on Oct. 14 and as of Wednesday morning it had garnered 418 votes.

Krause advised that people can place a vote everyday for this fund, and the new wheelchair accessible equipment will be open for use by the whole community in the school's off-hours.

Voting closes on Sunday, Nov. 1, and the link is on the school's website.