(rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

building up the neighbourhood

West Park Community Association marks 60 years

Aug 26, 2023 | 4:35 PM

For 60 years, the West Park Community Association (WPCA) has been in existence, uplifting the neighbourhood which abuts the QEII Highway.

West Park is a diverse neighbourhood age-wise, no doubt, in that it’s largely older, but it also has a new school and neighbours Red Deer Polytechnic.

WPCA President Stephen Merredew and crew hosted a 60th birthday celebration Saturday, outside the city’s oldest neighbourhood shopping centre (3722 57 Avenue) — that fact confirmed by city councillor and well-known historian Michael Dawe. The West Park Shopping Centre dates back to the 1950s.

Local shops took part in the festivities as a classic car show happened outside, while across the street was the grand opening of a new gazebo the WPCA has been raising money for over several years.

“The neighbourhood itself goes back to the 1950s; there are even homes here which would date back 100 years. Now, the community association also include Westlake, which is a fairly new development; that’s all the homes and acreages going out towards Heritage Ranch. So it’s a nice mix of old and new,” Merredew explains.

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The West Park Shopping Centre is the oldest neighbourhood shopping centre in the city, dating back to the 1950s. It hosted a classic car show that looked straight out of that decade on Saturday, Aug. 26, 2023. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

“West Park is kind of the confluence, I like to say. We’re directly adjacent to downtown, all the major transportation routes in Red Deer go through or nearby; it’s very convenient. There’s also a very strong housing stock, it’s right by the polytechnic and we have a large student base.”

Merredew touched on the importance of community associations and the work it takes to maintain them.

“Community associations are vital to neighbourhoods, and I’d encourage everybody to step up and get involved in one for their own neighbourhood,” he says. “It can be for one event you have an attachment to, or many things. Here, we run Green Deer, so picking up litter to keep it looking nice, we run a fall market to promote local vendors, entrepreneurs and artisans, and we always try to have some form of children’s entertainment going on.”

Every community association does things in its own way, he adds, but the common thread is that they’re run by volunteers.

“If we don’t have volunteers, then we can’t continue doing what we’re doing. Volunteerism isn’t something that costs any money, and it can give you a large sense of feeling rewarded. It’s great to see people out, enjoying a nice day and bringing groups together.”

The West Park Gardens opened several years ago, with around 20-25 private planters, and a few more open to the public. It’s a focal point of the green space where the gazebo now stands.

Merredew says the future hopefully holds many more enhancements to that space.

“It’s an ongoing project that might not even be done in my lifetime, but we’re hoping to redevelop this unused park space to include a whole bunch of neighbourhood amenities, such as a food forest, a community games area, a natural playground area and some trails,” he says.

“It’ll eventually be a little bit of something for everybody. We’ve got great schools and playgrounds here in West Park, but those are not really usable by senior citizens, particularly during school hours.”

The garden is run in partnership with the nearby Presbyterian church, which allows the use of their collected rainwater. Some of the gardens actually sit on the church’s land, Merredew notes.

That and everything the WPCA does is about good community partnerships, he says. As for the gazebo, donations ranging from $5 to $500 came in to get that erected.

Up next for the WPCA is its fall market happening Sept. 16 from 11-3 at the West Park Activity Centre (3811 57 Avenue).

More on the WPCA is at westparkrd.com.