MELFORT — Maude Burke School in Melfort has been fundraising to upgrade the playground equipment at the school since 2025 and has exceeded its own goals.
The school will receive a $50,000 Saskatchewan Parks and Recreation Association Grant and has also raised funds in the community.
Ashley Toews, vice-chair of the Maude Burke School Community Council SCC and chair of the Maude Burke playground committee, explained that the idea has been a topic of discussion for the last decade in the SCC.
"Just seeing the other schools growing in their playground and we were staying stagnant and didn't really know how to come up with the money. It's kind of what I gathered from prior SCC members,” Toews said,
She said that principal Randy Steciuk brought the information on the grant to the SCC as a concept.
"But I thought, ‘I have faith in our community and I'm willing to take on this initiative and see what we can do by Feb. 25.’ That was the deadline to get the grant and we just took it from there,” Toews said.
The first playground committee meeting was on Nov. 24, 2025, and Toews said it took off from there.
"I felt like we need to think of a way to get money fast. I know there's grants out there, but grants take a long time. And I know we can do sales of different things that often doesn't yield a lot of money. So I thought, let's go out and just ask our community for help with monetary donations. That's the quickest way to get cash fast,” Toews said.
She explained that she composed a letter that was rolled out in January during a school event with student and parent engagement.
"I just went up to the front of the gym and proposed my pitch with my letter and the parents had the opportunity to take letters,” Toews said.
She said students, parents, the committee and teachers were all helpful after the launch.
"They all kind of put their heads in it. We had a business list where we spread across the city trying to hit a lot of main businesses and people that were likely to donate,” Toews said.
Since the January launch, the committee has raised $89,000 and has been successful in obtaining a grant. On Sept. 9, 2025, the Province of Saskatchewan announced at $3.75 million annual allocation to enrich outdoor play spaces. Parks, Culture and Sport Minister Alana Ross said at the time that the grant will be administered in partnership with Saskatchewan Parks and Recreation Association (SPRA).
Toews said that it was amazing to surpass the goal in such a short period of time.
“I had a lot of people not truly believing in what our community was capable of. And I'm just super proud that it all came together as it did. It definitely didn't have to be this successful. So we are just overwhelmed with gratitude,” Toews said,
She explained that the entire school is behind the initiative.
"It's created so much momentum and excitement with our parents and student body. The students are all thrilled. We came up with a thermometer that we have posted in the school so the kids can see every day and every week as our amounts climb. We have rewards for every $10,000 made because the students are actively involved in raising the money. They go out and ask their neighbours, ask their grandparents that sort of thing,” Toews said.
For each $10,000 raised, there is a small reward like a bonus recess, a movie with a bag of chips, or the most successful one, which was a school dance.
“I don't know if you saw that one on Facebook, but that was definitely everyone, from teachers, students, like they say, it was the best thing ever. So, I think we're going to continue that one,” Toews said.
The plan is to get the playground started before the end of the 2025-26 school year. The money from the grant has a March 2027 deadline to be spent and they plan to install during the spring and summer months if possible.
“Our thought was to do a first phase in June … as long as we can get everything finalized with our equipment order in time,” Toews said.
She explained that there is usually an eight-week turnaround from placing an order to delivery.
"But we would hope that the Grade 6s that have been working so hard to help this campaign could reap the benefits and have their last month of elementary school to play on the new equipment. So that's our dream. It's going to be tight, but we're going to see what we can do,” Toews said.
Toews said that the need for support is not over just because this phase of the fundraising has been a success.
"Equipment is very expensive, and even with the money that we have raised, it's not going to cover what our visions are for the playground. We lack in a lot of areas at Maude Burke in comparison to the other schools. We don't have movement features on our playground. We don't have a lot of challenge aspects to our equipment. We also heavily lack in the area of accessibility,” Toews said.
"So we hope to expand and maybe do a second phase of installment in the fall, purely based on accessibility equipment. We are still actively trying to raise funds. So we just want the community to know that. We've reached our goal and I don't want that to shut it all down,” Toews said.
Toews added that they are also upgrading existing equipment to improve safety.
Toews said that the committee is grateful to the community for its support.
