Mt. Pleasant Public School Parent Council has officially raised just over $85,000 to help build a new playground structure that will go up in August of 2023.
Roughly 250 elementary aged children attend Mt. Pleasant school and for those in grades four and under, their playground equipment has been shut down and roped off for the past few years.
In December 2021, the Mt. Pleasant School Parent Council began fundraising in hopes to have the current structure replaced and back up and running for all to enjoy.
The original fundraising goal was set around $65,000 to $70,000, however there was a request to install a rubberized surface underneath the structure. The addition raised the price by roughly $35,000 and bumped the fundraising goal to close $100,000.
In early March, an estimated $57,000 had been raised for the playground, including a $5,000 donation from the Mount Pleasant Optimist Club and a $10,000 donation from Brant County Fire Station 5.
Since then, the Parent Council was able to resolve the rubberized surface issue and cut the cost back down again.
“We did not have to go with the rubber surface and we actually will be going with just wood chips instead, so this is a big plus for us,” said Sherri Marshall, President of Parent Council.
As donations have been coming in and fundraising events have proven fruitful, the council has now raised over $85,000, and Marshall says it couldn’t have been done without the community.
“It’s super, super exciting and it’s just a relief,” she said. “It felt like we were constantly bugging, bugging, bugging for more donations. I can’t believe that we didn’t have to apply for anything, it’s all been from the community. The entire community came together for this, there were no grants or anything.”
Mount Pleasant Optimist Club donated another $10,000 to bring their total donation to $15,000.
Other local businesses and community members like Marilyn Campbell, Leslie McAllister and Preferred Motor Cars also recently donated $1000 each.
Devlin’s Country Bistro is running a breadbasket fundraiser from March until the end of the school year. Grade eight graduates are also set to have their graduation dinner at the restaurant and the owner will donate the money back to the school.
The Parent Council group recently put on a gift card calendar lottery that raised roughly $16,000 as it ran throughout the month of May and the two Brantford Domino’s also offered a five-dollar donation to the cause for every ten-dollar pizza purchased on May 18, 2023.
While the goal has now been surpassed, the Parent Council isn’t slowing down yet.
“It’s going in in August but we’re still continuing our fundraising for a little bit longer because we have enough to put the playground in, but we really want to also include the sponsorship garden,” said Marshall.”We still want to get to that $100,000 so we can get that garden in as a thank you to all our sponsors.”
At the end of the school year, the group is planning to have a barbeque with the Firefighters to say goodbye to the old playground.
“We’re having a barbeque with the firefighters barbecuing some hot dogs for the kids and we are having a farewell to the old playground party,” said Marshall. “When they come in September, the new one will be there.”
