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Posties pony up for playground

FAMILIES: | Kackaamin Family Centre eager to put up new playground.
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Sadie Greenaway

Kackaamin Family Development Centre on Beaver Creek Road is one of 18 recipients of Canada Post Community Foundation grants in B.C. this year.

Representatives from the Port Alberni Canada Post depot on Johnston Road presented a cheque for $14,500 to the family centre this month.

Sadie Greenaway said the donation will be a great benefit to families using Kackaamin substance abuse treatment centre.

“The money will go to the building of playground  equipment because we are a family centre,” she said.

Kackaamin Family Centre opened in the former Beaver Creek Elementary School in 2009, having moved from a previous location in Tofino.

The former school has been remodeled and 12 family units were built in behind the facility with help from BC Housing.

“It’s mostly for First Nations families. It’s a treatment centre,” Greenaway said.

The Canada Post grant program is nationwide, said Brad Woods, local area superintendent. “Once a year for the month of October we do a drive for donations for our community foundation,” he said. “Money collected in B.C. stays in B.C.

“We had a really good year.”

Over the past seven years the foundation has granted more than $12 million to almost 250 organizations across Canada.

The three-stage playground system, designed for toddlers, children and youth of the families who attend the substance abuse treatment program at Kackaamin, will be built by someone here in the Alberni Valley. Work will begin next spring.