CALGARY A century ago, Calgary families would spend theirSundays at St. George s Island, relaxing as they watched liveentertainment and played on the city s first playground. The gathering place featured one of Calgary s largest bandstandsand a simple playground, which became a popular spot for childrento play throughout the week. In contrast to the plastic jungles of today, Calgary s firstplayground, which was built in 1912, was made of wood and metal andcontained a slide and swing set.
The city s recreation offerings have grown since the initialplayground, and today, in addition to golf courses, skate parks,arts centres and leisure centres, the city oversees more than 900playgrounds across Calgary. Families learned more about City of Calgary Recreation, which iscelebrating its centennial in 2012, at an event hosted by the cityat the Calgary Zoo on Sunday. The roots of the city s recreation department can be traced backto the first playground, which city kids enjoyed withoutsupervision. Because so much of the activity was unsupervised, they werehaving issues with a lot of bullying, said Teresa Byrne, projectmanager for Recreation 100 at the City. In 1912, Reverend A.D.
McDonald, of the Children s Aid Society,penned a letter to mayor and council, requesting their attentionto a most grievous matter, which was the fact that they needed tohave supervised play for the children to ensure that they werestaying out of trouble and finding the right way to expressthemselves, Byrne said. In response to the letter, the mayor and council formed the OpenSpaces and Playground Special Committee in 1912, which was thebirth of City of Calgary Recreation. It was that group that then formed and started looking at howthey could then hire individuals to supervise the play and actuallyset up programs that the kids would be able to come together andplay as children should, Byrne said. The city s early recreation offerings were about giving urban kidssomething to do in their spare time, and as the years passed, newopportunities for supervised recreation were created.
The first outdoor skating rinks were offered in 1913, and in 1914,dressing rooms were built at Elbow River, which was a popularswimming area. Riley Park wading pool, which still exists today,was opened in 1923. The first city-owned golf course was built in1915, and playgrounds were installed in city parks in 1916. City of Calgary Recreation has grown from a single playground tomore than 50 city facilities, 10,000 registered programs and avariety of festivals and events. We ve really learned to adapt to make recreation a four-seasonevent for all Calgarians, no matter age or ethnicity or incomelevel, said Gail Gibbons-Chomiak, a marketing strategist with thecity s recreation department.
As the department looks toward the next 100 years and facilitiesevolve, Byrne is certain playgrounds will continue to be popularplaces for city kids long into the future. There will be newer, shinier ways of how we still allow kids touse their creative imaginations organically through a playgroundstructure, Byrne said.
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