A new playground!

Spring has sprung and we are thrilled to announce the expansion of our regular program to the great outdoors, on a brand new playground built especially for Jamie’s students last November. We are tremendously grateful for every contribution great and small that helped us provide this wonderful opportunity for fun, motor development and fresh air for our preschoolers, most of whom can’t play at public playgrounds due to their fragile immune health.

Our thanks go out first to Lisa Caton and Gordon Laird—along with their son Myles, their families and friends—for their incredible generosity in honour of their late son, our former student and dear friend, Addison Laird. Donations to Jamie’s in Addison’s memory seeded the funds and inspired the idea for Jamie’s first outdoor play area—a creative play structure for two to five year olds that is dedicated for the exclusive use of Jamie’s students on school days. Being centrally and privately situated just outside our door in the beautiful courtyard of St. David’s United Church, we hope the playground will be enjoyed at other times by Jamie's families who live in the area, along with others at the nearby Alberta Children’s Hospital and Ronald McDonald House who have special need for a sheltered place to play.

Special thanks to Addison’s dad Gord, a former director of Jamie's Preschool, for pulling it all together and making it happen! We are also grateful to Addison's uncle, Robert Laird, also a Jamie's director, and all the family members and friends of Addison whose contributions made it possible.

The playground could not have been completed without significant additional support from Energy Fore Friends, Momentum and the CIBC Children’s Foundation/CIBC Miracle Day, along with all the smaller gifts that made it possible. Thank you all for your generosity!

This year spring arrives amidst the delightful, delighted sights and sounds of kids being kids, whatever their ailments—a perfect tribute to mark the 5th anniversary of Addison’s passing in April.