Wheelchair-accessible slides at park a game-changer
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/12/2017 (2938 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Squeals of delight and laughter echoed through the trees Friday morning at St. Vital Park, as Winnipeg’s new wheelchair-accessible toboggan slides were opened to the public.
Children and adults — their cheeks pink from the cold — lined up to ride down the slides nestled in a forested area in the park between River Road and the Red River.
The $750,000 structure boasts raw Douglas fir siding, galvanized framing and a steel feature wall punctured with V-shape cutouts, meant to mimic a sweater pattern originated in Manitoba by needlework company Mary Maxim.
The two slides are connected to a wheelchair-accessible ramp, a feature St. Vital Coun. Brian Mayes is proud of.
“One of our staff members said we should make it fully accessible, and it’s wonderful,” said Mayes, who was on hand for the grand opening, along with Mayor Brian Bowman and Manitoba Sustainable Development Minister Rochelle Squires. “It adds to the look of it.”
To inaugurate the slide, Mayes invited sledge hockey Paralympian Billy Bridges to make the first trip down.
Bridges, who lives in Toronto but visits family in Winnipeg during the holiday season, said the ramp was easy to use and the slide was lot of fun.
“I’ve never seen an accessible toboggan run in my entire life, and having a two-year-old daughter, it’s a game-changer because it’s an activity that we can both do,” said Bridges, who uses a wheelchair.
“I can wheel up it no problem with my daughter right on my lap.”
Construction of the two slides, four-season shelter, viewing deck and wheelchair-accessible ramp started last year, but it’s been a rough process to provide year-round fun to Winnipeggers, Mayes said. The project was pitched in 2014, but faced many challenges.
“It’s been redesigned, the funding was threatened once, I got fed up once,” Mayes said. “It’s been a long voyage, but I’m so pleased to have it open for the public.”
Not only is the slide a fun activity during the winter months, but Winnipeggers can utilize the structure year-round, as it doubles as a treetop lookout and picnic area, Mayes said.
“We wanted to design something that would really fit into the park,” said Liz Wreford of Public City Architecture, the company that designed the structure. “The forest was our inspiration.
“It was such a great decision, and there was a perfect spot for it. The way it winds through the forest is perfect.”
kiera.kowalski@freepress.mb.ca