All Play, No Pay at Friedenstal Playground
With a growing number of young people in the area and the mortgage on the Friedenstal Hall freshly retired, the Friedenstal Historical Society turned its attention to a new project.
“Populations ebb and flow, and all of a sudden we found ourselves in a situation where we've got lots of young families with lots of kids in the area,” says Nicole Heck, president of the society. “So, when the hall was paid off a little over a year ago, we decided to put our energy into creating a playground for them.”
At the top of the list was building a playground that was accessible to everyone and raising the money to pay for it. Located next to the hall just outside Fairview, Alta., the building part was completed as the snow started to fly last fall, but the money still needed to be raised.
“The cost of building a playground these days makes my head spin, and we knew it was only going to go up, so we took on some debt in order to get it underway as soon as possible, while doing local fundraising and applying for grants,” says Heck.
One of the grants they applied for was from ADAMA Canada’s Stomping Grounds community investment initiative, which was brought to their attention by Paul Buck, owner of HawkView Ag.
In April, the Society was informed its playground project had been selected for a $5,000 investment from ADAMA Canada.
Stomping Grounds
The Friedenstal Playground is one of 23 community projects from across Canada that received funding from ADAMA this year. The company invested a total of $127,000 into the 23 projects and has contributed over half a million dollars since 2018 to strengthen the fabric of rural communities.
Buck joined Deanna Chabot, Northern Alberta Area Business Manager with ADAMA Canada, to personally deliver the cheque to the Friedenstal Historical Society and see the playground up close.
“It’s pretty amazing what they’ve done with the new hall and playground, really making it a destination for the surrounding area,” says Chabot. “I went to college at Fairview Campus and know first-hand how important these halls are for bringing people in a community together and now, with the playground, it’s more of a destination than ever.”
Heck says when the society got word they had been selected, they were thrilled – not just for the investment itself but because it would allow them to access additional funds they could put toward retiring the debt.
“With the investment that ADAMA made, we were able to use those funds to get a matching government grant and with that we are able to pay off the loan for the playground,” she says.
Chabot says that knowing ADAMA’s investment made an amplified impact on the fundraising feels pretty good but seeing how much the kids were enjoying the playground while she was there felt even better.