Peace Park

Serving Others, Supporting the Environment, Personal Growth

Peace Park presents volunteer opportunities for at-risk students within the alternative learning environment of the Black Gold Outreach School in Leduc, Alberta. The primary goal is to enhance student engagement, ownership, and pride in the natural environment surrounding our school through volunteer community service.

The secondary goals are for students to be able to:
• contribute back to the community of Leduc through beautifying the landscaping, nature trail walkway and the Peace Park in our school neighborhood
• learn how to work in order to become more employable through their volunteer efforts and their contacts with community service groups
• earn high school credits through Volunteerism with the Career and Technology Studies CTS course

The students will choose from:
Peace Park: Spring clean up, flower planting and maintenance of the Rotary Peace Park .

Adopt A Block: Spring cleanup and maintenance of the parking lot, street, and nature trail walkway surrounding our school which is located in the Leduc Recreation Centre.

"The City of Leduc, in conjunction with Communities in Bloom (CIB), is a new, (2011) six-week program intended to encourage citizens and community groups to help clean and beautify the city. "Adopt a Block is designed to motivate residents and community groups to get involved and promote civic pride through community clean-up efforts," says Darrell Melvie, director of community development and service planning with the City of Leduc. "It's another way for the city to encourage community building and community spirit.”

Update (June 4, 2012)

Spring

We wanted to jump start our Adopt A Block project by decorating our Outreach School storefront entrance for Easter. While it was a lovely day when we started...but who are we kidding! After all, this is Alberta!

One of our goals was to beautify our neighborhood so we are planning on adding big flower pots to our next door neighbor’s storefront, The Leduc Boys and Girls Club.

Then “spring” in Alberta hit us with a reminder that the calendar is just a suggestion for our seasons!

Update (October 30, 2012)

Once our snowy spring settled down we found that it was so wet to work in the park. We had a rainy May and June and we realized we needed help to get the park fixed up before the students left for the summer. So we hired a landscaper to come in and clear out the weedy mess, save some established shrubs and roses that we had planted in previous years, and bring in new soil. When he heard about our partnerships with the Rotary Club and the City of Leduc and Communities in Bloom, he was kind enough to DONATE all the new shrubs and flowers for the makeover!