“Our constant vision for the city was to create a health and wellness campus that would keep people on this side of the lot instead of in the hospital,” said Malcolm Jenkins, owner of Prince Albert’s Canadian Tire.
“When it comes down to it and a kid has diabetes and you have to strap him to a machine because it’s been in his basement for 15, 16, 18 years, we raise money for that. Why not do it now and avoid that?
Initially, the project opened in early summer. However, after 25 days, heavy rain severely damaged the initial lawn.
“I think we had a big flood in the middle of June, and it got under it and lifted it up and we had problems there,” Jenkins said. “We got the contractor to come in and try to put it back together and we just weren’t happy with the way he was going.”
For Jenkins, it’s all part of getting people active at all ages. Much of the other work that she has done for her family foundation has been geared towards the younger demographic. This is for people over 13 years old.
“We’ve built a number of parks and water parks, spray fields and skate parks for kids up to 12 or 14 years old or so,” Jenkins said. “We thought, why don’t we build something for older kids and we can add a health element to it by having an outdoor gym?”
The gym has some lovely days for its opening week, with a forecast high of 26C on Wednesday and Thursday.
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On twitter: @RobMahonPxP
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