Safety Village expansion project set to move forward
Geof Bailey, director, Vehicle Safety, Emissions & Product Programs, GM Canada, shakes hands with Lennis Trotter, director, Kids’ Safety Village of Durham Region, to celebrate the unveiling of the new facade of the GM building at the Village and the $30,000 donation GM Canada made towards the expansion. Also pictured are, from left, Corey Walsh of the Durham Regional Police; Ron Mortson, treasurer, Kids’ Safety Village; Paul Dinneen, director, Dealer Org and Network Planning, Sales, GM Canada; Linda Porritt and Peter Tietze, both of the Kids’ Safety Village. (Photo submitted).
By Dave Flaherty/The Oshawa Express
Ongoing renovations and an expansion mean good things are on the horizon for the Kids’ Safety Village of Durham Region as the new space allows the organization to expand its programming in the near future.
With two new classrooms to be constructed west of the existing facilities, the Safety Village will soon offer fire safety instruction, says Lennis Trotter, a director with the Kids’ Safety Village and past-president of the Rotary Club of Oshawa-Parkwood.
Trotter says the fire safety classroom will be interactive and include a kitchen, bathroom and bedroom to allow local fire departments to realistically simulate fire and emergency situations.
In addition to the new classrooms, the expansion will include improvements to washrooms, community meeting facilities and better accessibility throughout the village.
Roads and sidewalks were recently upgraded and resurfaced to bring the Village to today’s standards.
Trotter says the expansion should be completed in 2018.
The Rotary Club of Oshawa-Parkwood is contributing $50,000 to the expansion project, which has an overall estimated cost of $700,000.
The Rotary club, along with the Optimist Club of Ajax, originally built the village with the assistance of more than 90 other organizations that provided financial support or in-kind donations of construction materials or labour.
In addition, 160 sponsors helped to furnish the village with bikes, helmets, battery-operated jeeps, classroom furniture and more.
The Durham District School Board donated the 1.2 acres the village sits on.
It is estimated that more than 200,000 Grade 1 to Grade 3 students from across the region have visited the village since its inception 20 years ago.