By Spencer Sterritt

Ecole North Oyster to win $100,000 for new accessible playground

Jun 18, 2018 | 5:49 PM

NANAIMO — Years of hard work and weeks of campaigning has paid off in a big way for an elementary school south of Nanaimo.

Ecole North Oyster is set to win $100,000 for a new playground as part of the BCAA Play Here contest. People from across B.C. voted for the 10 schools in the competition, each in dire need of money to better the lives of students.

The school campaigned for the playground because there’s currently very little for students and many end up wandering around bored during recess.

When voting closes Monday at noon, Ecole North Oyster was in the lead with more than 75,000 votes.

Campaign organizer Chrissie Stephen said the community was with them the entire way.

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“Seventy-five thousand votes says it all in a community of 7,500 people. You can see support came from all across B.C.”

During weeks of a constant social media campaign, Stephen said nearly everyone loved the idea and pledged to help.

“These are people we’ve never met before that came out. I’ve heard stories of a principal sharing with parent advisory council members across the Island and an animal rescue group putting out a whole thing about our plea and what our cause is.”

Even an elderly woman, who didn’t have a computer and therefore couldn’t vote online, took flyers and handed them out to friends and family.

Stephen said the ease of voting online, where people could vote up to four times a day from various social media accounts, let the competition thrive and their dreams become a reality.

All three schools with the highest votes will receive $100,000.

Organizers, the school, BCAA and engineers will meet later in June to get the construction process underway. The new playground will have slides, climbing structures and paving all around for students with accessibility challenges.

Construction is expected to finish by the end of September.

Official results will be posted on Thursday. Stephen said given Ecole North Oyster is roughly 30,000 votes ahead of the fourth place school, she and others are confident enough to start celebrating.

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit