The City of Lacombe will be hosting a Parks Party next Saturday at Bruns Pond, located at the corner of Woodland Drive and Heritage Way.
From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Lacombians can join the celebration that features a free barbecue, games and a few other exciting reveals.
“One of the main things is we are going to be unveiling the new art project located at Bruns Pond,” said Sonya Beauclair, City of Lacombe Recreation and Culture administrative assistant.
The art installation is a bonsai tree water feature that is a memorial for Lacombe’s twin city Rikubetsu, Japan.
“Larry Hunter from B.C. has designed this with one of his colleagues,” explained Sandi Stewart, City of Lacombe Recreation and Culture manager. “It was all done through art collection funds, which the one per cent for art contributes to. It’s kind of one of our new feature 3-D pieces and I would say it’s one of our biggest pieces in the City.”
Previous large art pieces commissioned by the City include a mural at the spray park and the tile display at the Lacombe Memorial Display.
“So this is new and exciting,” said Stewart. “It’s a big deal.”
June 6th is also marked as International Trails Day and the City will also unveil a memorial display in honour of Bill Nielsen, one of Lacombe’s trail system purveyors.
Described as one of the City’s true trailblazers, who as a dedicated volunteer helped develop the trail systems now in place, the City’s Recreation and Culture department thought it was only fitting to unveil the memorial to Nielsen on International Trails Day.
“He was just a huge community-minded person,” said Stewart. “He really inspired so many people to get involved in running and marathons. He was an amazing person. Someone that you would want in every community in Alberta.”
Across the road from Bruns Pond, before the Parks Party begins, a birthplace tree planting ceremony will be held at 10:45 a.m.
The City started the birthplace forest program in 2007, and through resident participation, is transforming the portion of Lincoln Park along Woodlands Drive into a ‘commemorative urban forest.’
Through planting a tree in the community, the Birthplace Forest honours both children and the environment.
“The Birthplace Forest celebrations take place once a year and each child’s name is engraved on a permanently installed commemorative plaque that includes the names of all children who have had a tree planted in their honour in the previous 12 months,” said Mary Lou Fiveland, administrative assistant to the Lacombe Memorial Centre.
This year four trees were planted to honour the new children including Thatcher Brunner, Amelia Goudy, Hunter Larson and Charlee Pyra.
The Birthplace Forest program oversees a variety of trees planted each year by the Parks Department.
“Along with celebrating the birth of a child, these trees help meet Lacombe’s urban forest objectives,” said Fiveland. “They will help move pollutants from our air and beautify our City for years to come.”
Also at the parks party, the off-leash dog park assessment survey will be available for residents to fill out.
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