It's been a long time coming, but the children at University Highlands Elementary finally have a proper place to play.
The school, which opened in 2010, did not initially have a playground, just an empty gravel pit. The school's parent advisory council raised more than $100,000 for a playground, and donations came in from local businesses, the provincial government and the City of Burnaby.
Steve Conrad, a parent with a seven-year-old daughter at University Highlands, has been involved in the push for a playground since the beginning.
"The kids find the playground amazing. We haven't had any more requests for anything new," he said. "The unique aspect of this playground is the rocket, which has a two-storey slide."
Before the playground was installed over the summer, the children used to play in an open field, also known as "the mud pit."
Conrad described it as a construction dump site.
"It had a lot of construction debris, extra boulders and rocks, which they cleaned up," he said.
The official ribbon cutting for the school's playground was on Friday, Sept. 28.
