For the kids

By Marty Forbes
Edmonton Sun.com


In the early 90's one of the things I'm most proud of at the radio station I ran here was the Bears Children's Fund which was set up to provide legacy projects to support children's needs in Edmonton. (CFBR FM)

One of the earliest beneficiaries of the Kids fund was the Castle Downs community league who was requesting cash to finish a playground in the area.

Flash forward about 20 years later and that little playground has literally come full circle in a most interesting way.

When the new playground was recently rebuilt the old one was dismantled and several Castle Downs residents packaged it up; shipped it overseas, relocating and reassembling it in a poor area two hours north of Manilla in the Philippines.


Included in the team of about 20 residents from the Castle Downs Recreation Society was the honorable Thomas Lukaszuk Minister of Employment and Immigration and his wife Stacey Brotzel, host from Breakfast Television from City tv, who have just returned from the Philippines and they proudly chronicle this most amazing story.

Stacey tells me....

"The project all started when we were tearing down the old 15 year old playground to put up a new one in the spring.  Castle downs resident Pat Zelenak approached Thomas and asked what could be done with the old set."

Thomas chimes in with...

"I suggested we send it to a third world country.  I picked the Philippines because there are so many foreign workers in Alberta from there who leave their kids to come to Canada to provide them with a better life.  It was a way to give back to them and put smiles on their kids' faces."

This  was totally a Castle Downs initiative. Community schools donated toys, jerseys, volleyball nets, school and craft supplies.  The league donated sports equipment and clothing, and there were a number of fundraisers, fashion shows and silent auctions with all the money going to shipping the container to the site, for tools to put the playground together, and to build a water tower to the village.

"CN donated the transportation of a sea container to the Vancouver port.  It was an old playground so that came with alot of challenges.  Much of the hardware was worn or missing.  Pat Zelenek works for the playground company that first put it up so he was our leader...our saviour at times making sure the playground looked like it was supposed to and was safe for the kids."



"Once we were done rebuilding the playground over there it was amazing and the kids attacked it seconds after the ribbon was cut. One dad said "we get a playground...we thought that was only for the rich."


Stacey is a new Mom and had to leave young Olive back here in Edmonton while she went half way around the world to do this project.

"Leaving her was really hard (at 2).  She's at the point when she knows we're gone and it was painful to tear ourselves away.  I missed her like crazy. A lot of people on the project used Skype to keep in touch with their kids but I had no idea how hard it was to hang up on her but, in the back of my mind I knew we were going to make a difference and our short term pain meant long term smiles in that village."

While Stacey was recovering from tremendous jet lag I asked her what was the most overwhelming feeling she had after being home for a few days.

"I kept asking myself why....why do we have so much?  Why do they have so little?

I look at how we live here in the north America and how much we consume.  You feel guilty about that but still...with not much...you can see their smiles and you can hear their laughter everywhere.  You see them filling water bottles with sand and as long as shelter, food and health are taken care of these kids can find happiness with bubble wrap...and they did.

I am just glad we were able to give them this field of dreams...I'll never forget it."

Kudo's to the Castle Downs Community League for this notable project. It makes that little donation nearly 20 years ago even more meaningful and I'm sure that crew of people will feel the rewards for several years to come.

Good work Stacey, Thomas et all!

You can read more at http://blogs.btedmonton.ca/stacey - and on BT.



Marty Forbes is President of Radiowise Inc and is reachable at mforbes07@shaw.ca



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