Green Shacks close doors
Free-access equipment improves
parks experience for youngsters
Sarah Ladik
Northern News Services
Thursday, August 27, 2015
INUVIK
This week saw the end of a new program, one that saw more people having more fun in parks across the community.
Matthew Skinner mans a Green Shack Aug. 13 at Camsell Park. While it was a quiet day, the free equipment can sometimes draw more than 60 children to a park in a day. - Sarah Ladik/NNSL photo
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The Green Shacks program, which is literally green shacks set up in parks throughout town filled with free equipment, has wrapped up for the season.
Although it is only the first year they have been in place, organizers are calling it a success.
"It's going really great," said Candice Cockney, the co-ordinator for the program. "Our most popular park is the train park, and we see anywhere from one to 55 kids in a day there."
Cockney estimated that there are about 600 children in town for whom organized sports and other programs are out of reach.
The equipment in the green shacks, including giant chess pieces, footballs and soccer balls, other things, was all free to access. They were open from 10:30 a.m. to noon, 1 to 5 p.m., and 6 to 8 p.m., with the afternoon sessions being the most well attended. Those who wished could sign out equipment to borrow.
Typically, only one park was open at a time, but staff rotated between three locations.
"It's a flexible thing," said Cockney. "It's been a rainy summer and I can tell you that if it hadn't been so rainy, our attendance numbers would have been much higher."
Recreation co-ordinator Steve Krug said the program was modelled from a similar initiative in Edmonton, and that while this year was only a pilot project, he hopes to see it expand to three more parks next summer.
"We saw it as an opportunity to enhance our parks and playgrounds and summer programs for great access," he told the Drum. "We thought that if it was such a big success in a big centre like Edmonton, it would be really great here."
Krug said he hopes to see usage pick up in the evenings next summer and encouraged parents to head out and investigate with their children.
"There are a variety of games and sports equipment," Krug said, adding that there should be enough to entertain even the most jaded of participants. "We saw an opportunity for free access to recreation in the community and we jumped on it."
