here (view pdf) - Pembina Trails School Division

FUNDS BRING ECO-PLAYGROUND CLOSER TO REALITY
By Trevor Suffield Canstar Media
September 17, 2009
Sloppy sneakers and sopping socks may soon be a thing of the past for kids playing near Ecole St. Avila thanks
to an infusion of federal funding that will bring the school’s ambitious environmental drainage project one step
closer to being realized.
The $76,500 contribution was announced at a ceremony at the rolling playground shared by the school and the
Richmond Kings Community Centre on Aug. 28. “Community support for this project was clear,” said Winnipeg
South MP Rod Bruinooge, who helped secure the funding. “This project will help build a playground and
drainage system...that can make a real difference for students at Ecole St. Avila and families in the area.”
The federal contribution brings the total raised for the project to $265,000 — and organizers aren’t done yet.
There’s still more fundraising to do before shovels hit the dirt next spring.
“Ideally, we’d like to have $350,000,” said fund development chair Janice Lukes. “We’re feeling optimistic, and
we’ve got a few more avenues that we’re working with.”
That money will be well-spent, Lukes said. When the project’s finished, the site, which will be shaped with hills,
berms and creek beds, and filtered by the roots of water-loving natural plants, will be dotted with signage to
explain how its features help keep harmful phosphorus and nitrogen out of the province’s lakes and rivers.
That goal explains why the project’s donor patchwork includes support from ecologically-minded groups like
Seine Rat River Conservation District and TD Friends of the Environment. But the drainage project isn’t only
about the environment — it’s also aimed at bringing some relief to waterlogged parents.
“We got a full taste of it this year with my six-year-old,” sighed Maria Galloway, who lives next to the site and has
two children in Ecole St. Avila. “The big puddles were more like mini-lakes. I’d send a couple extra pairs of
socks, and when I’d pick him up everything was soaked. He had three pairs of splash pants on the go.”
Not only will improved drainage dry out the seasonally mucky field, but landscapers are planning on turning it
into a childhood paradise, a “natural playground” where logs, boulders, and a sloping landscape will give
Richmond Kings and St. Avila kids ample opportunity to explore. “It’s going to bring a lot of creative play,”
Galloway said. “There’s not going to be a lot of monkey bars, stuff where it jumps out and tells you what to do.
It’s not so structured.”
Improving the field means that Ecole St. Avila’s overstuffed gym — it was built for 200 students, Lukes says, and
the school itself is now at a capacity of 400 — will get some respite as teachers will be able to move some
classes outdoors.
“If you invest in the kids early, they’ll have a place to go that isn’t the 7-11,” said Cori-Lee Paterson, who moved
to the area to send her three oldest children to Ecole St. Avila. “We live in the community so we’re here all the
time... it’s going to be a very appealing place for us to spend time as a family.”
And hopefully, by the time the revamped greenspace is finished next fall, it will be an appealing place for other
school administrators and parents to spend some time as well. “We wanted to use the drainage system as a
teaching tool,” Lukes says, “so that not only the kids could learn from it, but that other schools, other mid-sized
commercial businesses and other residents in the community could learn from it.”
Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Funding to help school have 'natural
playground'
By: Lindsey Wiebe
29/08/2009 1:00 AM
Students at a Fort Richmond school could soon see their soggy recreation field dry up, and get a new,
environmentally friendly "natural playground" at the same time.
Ecole St. Avila and the adjacent Richmond Kings Community Centre landed more than $225,000 in federal,
provincial and city funding toward a bio-retention system that will use sloped ditches, filtration and native prairie
grasses to help manage storm water and curb nutrient runoff.
Indented dips in the ground known as rain gardens will be filled with
layers of sand and rock for filtering water, as well as bull rushes and
other native plants. "There will be lots of plant materials that will take
the water and suck out all the toxins, like the kidney system of a
wetlands," said Janice Lukes, fundraiser for the project and a member
of the school's greening committee.
The project will turn part of those grounds into a natural playground
for the school's roughly 400 students, complete with rocks and logs
for climbing, boardwalks and a fossil study area. The design of the
project means there will be no open water on the site.
Janice Lukes: fundraiser for the project. (KEN
GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
Lukes said the 14-acre grounds at the elementary school and community centre are frequently flooded and often
freeze up in winter, posing a hazard for kids. Lukes believes the system will be the city's only free demonstration
site for Winnipeggers who want to find out how the system works. The overhauled site will include interpretive
signage for visitors. Lukes said the hills and shallow ditches used in bio-retention are also the foundation for a
good natural playground, a concept that has been popular in Europe for decades but is still catching on in North
America. "It's not a metal play structure," she said. "It's hills and berms, logs over dry creek beds, boardwalks,
limestone areas where kids can sit and climb, learn about fossils."
The site is a joint project between the school and community centre. Lukes said planners expect to work with the
Pembina Trails School Division and the Seine-Rat River and La Salle Redboine Conservation Districts to make
sure the project gets wider exposure. The school and centre are working with the landscape architecture firm
Scatliff+Miller+Murray on the project, and have already lined up $275,000 in total funding.
Lukes expects work to start next spring, with drainage and the foundation for the natural playground in place by
next fall. More components to the playground will be added over the years.
An existing soccer field that already has underground drainage won't be affected, she said, nor will a baseball
field at the community centre -- just the land that typically floods.
"What's normally under water or ice will actually be usable," she said.
[email protected]
ENVIRONNEMENT
Triple innovation pour Saint-Avila
Pour l’école d’immersion Saint-Avila, gérer son problème d’eau stagnante
était l’occasion de faire un geste de plus pour l’environnement, avec les enfants.
Camille SÉGUY glace, alors c’était dangereux. »
es 15 dernières
années, plusieurs
écoles ont réfléchi à
comment améliorer leurs cours
d’école, constate le directeur de
l’école d’immersion Saint-Avila à
Winnipeg, Gordon Campbell.
Nous sommes les seuls à l’avoir
fait
avec
un
regard
environnementaliste, mais on
espère ne pas être les derniers. »
«C
« Janice Lukes m’a approché
pour qu’on trouve quoi faire,
indique le gérant du projet Down
the Drain et père d’élève, Derek
Murray. On a vite convenu qu’il
y avait là une opportunité de
faire bien plus qu’une simple
amélioration de l’écoulement
des eaux. On en est arrivés au
projet Down the Drain. »
Écologique
Tout a commencé aux
environs de Noël 2008. La
membre du comité vert de
l’école, Janice Lukes, avait offert
de désherber la cour devant
l’école pour l’améliorer.
Le projet Down the Drain
consiste en un écoulement
graduel de l’eau, qui profite aux
végétaux dans la cour d’école
mais aussi à la rivière Rouge dans
laquelle l’eau est déversée.
Mais en voulant désherber
aussi l’arrière, et avec la fonte des
neiges, elle a pris conscience de
la grande quantité d’eau qui
restait sans s’écouler là où les
enfants jouaient. Il y avait plus à
faire qu’un simple désherbage.
« Au lieu de mettre toute l’eau
de pluie tombée dans une
canalisation et de l’envoyer
directement dans la rivière
Rouge, on préfère la retenir un
peu sur le site, en contrôlant où
elle va pour éviter les endroits où
les enfants jouent, et la relâcher
lentement vers la rivière,
explique Derek Murray.
« L’été, quand il avait plu, la
cour pouvait être fermée
pendant plus d’une semaine,
confirme la directrice adjointe de
l’école Saint-Avila, Karine Rioux.
Ensuite, comme les enfants
avaient marché dans les flaques,
ça sentait le petit moineau dans
l’école. Et l’hiver c’était de la
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« L’avantage est double,
poursuit-il. D’une part, les
plantes sur le site peuvent mieux
bénéficier des nutriments de
l’eau de pluie. D’autre part, ces
mêmes plantes nettoient l’eau de
pluie de ses composants
chimiques avant qu’elle ne
rejoigne la rivière Rouge. C’est
plus écologique pour la rivière. »
La
construction
doit
commencer au printemps 2010.
« Nous avons les fonds nécessaires,
assure la présidente du conseil des
parents de l’école Saint-Avila,
Sarah Guillemard. Nous avons
déjà collecté 270 000 $. »
« Nous avons eu beaucoup de
subventions car notre projet était
vu comme expérimental, donc
beaucoup étaient curieux de
savoir comment ça allait
marcher », se réjouit Gordon
DU 27 JANVIER AU 2 FÉVRIER 2010
LA LIBERTÉ
photo : Camille Séguy
Le projet Down the Drain est un travail d’équipe qui a pu être mis sur pied grâce à la rencontre de
plusieurs volontés : celles des parents d’élèves, de l’école, mais aussi de la communauté.
Campbell.
L’école pourrait encore
recevoir d’autres subventions
dans les mois à venir, en
provenance de la Fondation
Winnipeg, de la Ville de
Winnipeg et d’Environnement
Canada.
Derek Murray ajoute que
« c’est aussi une opportunité de
construire de nouvelles structures
de jeux naturelles pour les enfants,
avec la terre qui sera déplacée
pour mener à bien le projet ».
« Utiliser les éléments naturels
pour faire des structures de jeux
est de plus en plus commun en
Europe, mais ici au Manitoba, ce
sera nouveau », remarque
Gordon Campbell.
Éducatif
Une autre composante du
projet Down the Drain est son
côté éducatif. Du désherbage à la
plantation de fleurs et d’arbres,
en passant par la construction de
nichoirs à oiseaux, « les enfants
de l’école ont été impliqués tout
le long du projet et ils ont eu
leur mot à dire », signale Karine
Rioux.
Elle rapporte d’ailleurs que
« depuis que le projet a
commencé, on n’a plus vu un
seul graffiti. En prenant part au
projet, les étudiants deviennent
plus fiers de leur école et
concernés par sa qualité ».
« Le projet apporte de
formidables
opportunités
éducatives pour l’école, mais
aussi pour toute la communauté
avoisinante qui utilise beaucoup
le site l’été et les fins de semaines,
ajoute Derek Murray.
« Quand nous aurons fini,
précise-t-il, nous prévoyons
installer des panneaux pour
décrire ce que nous avons fait et
pourquoi, et comment la qualité
de l’eau est rendue meilleure. »
D’autres écoles pourront aussi
en bénéficier. L’école Saint-Avila
se dit prête à les accueillir sur
leur site le temps d’un cours de
sciences environnementales.
7
Winnipeg Free Press
Rain gardens will nourish, while learning will flourish
Work has begun on ambitious water drainage project
By: Simon Fuller
Posted: 15/07/2010 1:00 AM |
From left to right: Fund development chair Janice Lukes, MP Winnipeg South Rod Bruinooge and minister of housing and
community development Kerri Irvin-Ross. (PHOTO COURTESY OF DOUGLAS LITTLE)
Enthusiasm and funding for an ambitious environmental project at a Fort Rich-mond school
and community centre have anything but dried up.
On June 28, the sod was turned to mark the start of work on a joint initiative between Ecole
St. Avila and Richmond Kings Community Centre that involves a bio-retention system that will
help manage storm water and curb nutrient runoff — and maybe prevent classrooms full of
soggy socks and sneakers.
Funding for the project, which will include the use of indented rain gardens filled with layers of
sand and rock to filter water, has now exceeded the $500,000 mark.
As well as an extensive long-term fundraising effort by the local community, the project will
grow will the help of more than $225,000 from all three levels of government, including a
recently announced grant from Environment Canada. "To receive this funding is like the gold
seal of approval for our innovative approach in dealing with poor drainage on the community
centre and school playing fields," said St. Norbert resident Janice Lukes, a key fundraiser for
the project.
Lukes, who is also co-ordinator of the Winnipeg Trails Association, noted that the design team
from landscape architecture firm Scatliff+Miller+Murray has "developed a drainage system
focused on improving the environment." Staff, parents and volunteers involved with the
kindergarten to Grade 6 school, located at 633 Patricia Ave., have also been working hard to
provide students with the chance to one day enjoy a natural playground that will feature rocks
and logs for climbing and a fossil study area.
According to Lukes, the principles of the project are rooted in both evolution and revolution.
"Mother Nature knows best. And we are basing the drainage design on what she has done for
centuries — enabling water to slowly enter the earth and be absorbed by native plants and
grasses," Lukes said. "While the St. Avila drainage project is only a drop in the bucket
towards improving water quality, it will offer extensive educational opportunities to students
and the community about conservation and the protection of water, which is one of Manitoba's
most valuable resources."
Rod Bruinooge, MP for Winnipeg South, said the federal government is pleased to support
the project, which is officially called Down the Drain — A Demonstration Landscape: Using
Plants and Natural Systems to Clean our Water. "It is exciting to see the community come
together to make this project happen," Bruinooge said. "This project directly addresses
environmental concerns such as the water quality in Lake Winnipeg."
Both Bruinooge and Lukes said they were thrilled at the involvement of more than 20 local
and national project partners.
Work on the project is scheduled to be completed by the end of Nov. 2010.
[email protected]
Ecole St. Avila sits at the top of the tree
School, parents win award for growing a green future for
kids
By: Simon Fuller
6/05/2010 1:00 AM
Ecole St. Avila principal Gordon Campbell (left) and vice-principal Karine Rioux stand in the school’s
garden with their recent award.
A Fort Richmond school and some hands-on parents recently picked up a province-wide award for
contributions in their local community. The Ecole St. Avila Home and School Association received the
Parent Council Recognition Award from the Manitoba Association of Parent Councils at a banquet at
Winnipeg’s Victoria Inn on April 23.
The French immersion kindergarten to Grade 6 school, located on Patricia Avenue, beat out strong
competition from eight schools across the province.
"The ESAHSA is a really hard-working group of people who have done some amazing things," said Ecole
St. Avila principal Gordon Campbell.
As well as operating a successful milk program and helping to develop a school nutrition policy, Campbell
said the ESAHSA has gone to great lengths to enrich the grass roots foundations of the school. "Perhaps
our proudest achievement so far is a working grounds redevelopment project called Down the Drain,"
Campbell said.
Major construction on the extensive landscaping project, which will include a rain garden, is set to begin in
June 1. Campbell said the goal is to provide a better understanding of the issues related to water resources
and management.
"We’re working to examine the positive impact of taking rain water and recycling it back into the school.
We’re going to redevelop the school grounds to make it work," he said.
The project is considered so significant; it’s even garnered national interest and the attention of a Canadian
environmental icon. "David Suzuki has been in touch. He’s interested in featuring us on a show he’s doing
about Lake Winnipeg," Campbell said.
Down the Drain has been made possible thanks to fundraising efforts and grants from all three levels of
government and contributions from community stakeholders that total almost $500,000. Campbell is also
proud of a before and after school daycare project, which started with just a few parents. It has since grown
to serve 6o students and their families and is now operated by Pembina Trails School Division.
The president of ESAHSA said the award represents a togetherness of spirit in the association. "What
we’ve achieved so far is all about the future of our children in the community," said Sarah Guillemard, who
has three children at the school and a fourth heading there next year. "And though we’re honoured, we
don’t see this award as an end result, as we’ve got to keep on trucking."
The Parent Council Recognition award was established in 2009.
It was designed to recognize the "extraordinary efforts of school-based parent groups that support, promote
and enhance meaningful parental involvement in Manitoba’s schools," said Naomi Kruse, executive director
of the Manitoba Association of Parent Councils.
"The folks at Ecole St. Avila have been busy, but they’re not the only unsung heroes. The judging panel
found it so difficult to pick a winner," Kruse said. Among the short listed nominees from Winnipeg were Sun
Valley Parent Advisory Council from Ecole Sun Valley School in North Kildonan and Belmont Parent
Association from Belmont School in West Kildonan.
For more information about Ecole St. Avila’s progress, visit www.pembinatrails.ca/stavila.