POP goes the playground

Things will be going POP outside three Portage la Prairie schools this fall.

A new playground program, called Pals on the Playground, is being offered at Fort la Reine, North Memorial and La Verendrye schools for five weeks this fall and another 12 weeks in the spring.

“We're starting in September and we will be at one of the three schools, one night a week at each school,” said co-ordinator Lynne Parker. “We'll be at the playground from 6-7:30 p.m. I've gotten donated a Canadian Tire Jumpstart community activity kit; it has $1,500 worth of equipment that the kids can use, like parachutes, juggling stuff. We're going to have some balls, hula hoops and skipping ropes.”

The “pals” part of the program will be positive adult volunteers who will get involved in the playtime and act as mentors and role models as well as supervisors, Parker described.

“There was some concern at one playground of a little bit of bullying going on. It's where the idea for it came from,” she said. “So if we can get some people together to volunteer to come out and spend that hour and a half and give these kids a chance to play with some positive interaction, and maybe with the kids who are doing the bullying, maybe we can get some positive stuff going on for them, too.”

Parker presented the new program as well as her work as the recreational supervisor for the local Recreational Opportunities for Children program, funded through the province's Children and Youth Opportunities department to the Portage Rotary Club Tuesday.

“I got a couple (volunteers) today from Rotary, which was awesome,” Parker said, adding all volunteers need a criminal record check and a child abuse registry check.

When asked why she is so committed to working with children, Parker said: “When you're around the kids, you are just energized when you see those smiling little faces. It just gives me the energy to go and play with them and know they aren't sitting at home watching TV or playing on a computer or possibly any other negative things that may be going on around the home.

“'It takes a village to raise a child' I think is so true. It's our responsibility as community members to work with these kids so we can break that cycle for some of them, give them the opportunity to see some positive stuff.”

The POP program is being funded by a Manitoba Justice Lighthouses grant. The same funding was used by Parker to offer a Pow aboriginal dancing program for children and youth last spring, something that was such as success it is being brought back to LVS later this fall.

“At the end of October, we'll start up with the Pow program again,” she said.

When speaking to Rotary, Parker hoped to interest Rotarians in volunteering their time on the playground as well as helping to purchase two bicycles and helmets to be given away at the end of the POP program in the spring.

Rotary president Jean-Marc Nadeau endorsed Parker's efforts, encouraging Rotarians to support worthwhile projects and people like Parker.

“With my past career, I saw those children going down the wrong path,” said Nadeau, an ex-RCMP inspector.

He expressed his hope that programs like POP and Pow will keep kids on a good path and “out of the ditch.”

To volunteer for the program, contact Parker at her office in the Portage Friendship Centre, 204-239-6333.