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Letters: Wanting a place for kids to play

Parents wants community hall as a space for kids to play on rainy days

The best playground equipment kids can have is other kids.

Sooke needs a big, inexpensive (or free), indoor place where pre-school kids can run around and have fun with each other on rainy days, while their exhausted and impoverished parents (and grandparents) sit and do nothing.

The Sooke Community Association has generously allowed a group of pre-schooler’s parents to rent the big hall for a nominal sum ($50) this Wednesday, January 15, from 9:30 – 11:30 a.m. as a trial to measure interest in a regular venue for unstructured play. If we get a good turnout and can demonstrate the long term need, we will be approaching council with a request for funding for this and other child-friendly activities and amenities.

We invite caregivers to bring the kids (we are hoping for a loonie or a toonie each), and come out to network and brainstorm what Sooke can offer to keep pre-school kids busy. We usually organize free outdoor activities, like cooking cinnamon buns in the cob oven at the Sunriver Community Garden, toy truck races on the bike park at SEAPARC or just running loose at Fred Milne ball park, but we need a place for cold, windy, wet days.

Provincially funded Strong Start serves a great need, but when several daycares show up with five kids each, in addition to parents with kids, the place is packed beyond capacity. We also need fenced parks, so parents can sit and socialize without having to chase a bolting two-year-old into the street.

Sooke need not struggle with competing interests for its identity; our children unify us. Come join us at the community hall on Wednesday. We will organize to advocate for a child friendly Sooke.

Terrance Martin

Sooke