Adventure Playground brings out kids’ imagination

A new pilot project by Youth HQ is allowing kids to get messy again.
 
The mobile ‘Adventure Playground’ is a supervised space where youth are encouraged to use manual tools and their imagination.
 
Companies within Red Deer donated a number of recycled items including cardboard and PVC pipe for kids to construct a whole new world, on this occasion at the Kerry Wood Nature Centre’s Imagination Grove.
 
“It’s total chaos,” says Doug Evans, who works in the City’s Parks department and also sits on the Youth HQ Board. “There are no rules, it’s just a creative day for kids to go crazy.”
 
Tanya Wells, with the Waskasoo Environmental Education Society, says the event is all about getting kids back to the basic roots of playing.
 
“This is allowing children to be children, getting messy, down and dirty, not only enjoying nature, but learning they can bring other pieces into it, and using recycled items to play with instead of buying big and fancy expensive playgrounds or blowup things,” she says. “Who has more fun than kids playing in the water, geting muddy and dirty and building a big tunnel with cardboard boxes?”
 
Also on hand were a number of teens from Youth HQ’s Big Brothers Big Sisters and Boys and Girls Club programs.
 
“Their part in this is assisting with helping kids learn how to play and make sure it’s safe,” Wells says.”And they’re all volunteers, so it’s community coming together yet again.”
 
A pair of other Adventure Playground events will be happening later this summer. Youth HQ hopes to set dates for those events soon.