Pam’s Playground: The Story.
On July 20, 2022, Englewood School lost beloved teacher Pam Kelly after a long battle with cancer. She was 48 years old.
Pam began teaching at Englewood in 2003 with numerous assignments before settling into teaching Grade 2. Pam was a welcoming presence to every person who walked through the doors of Englewood, greeting them with a big smile and her contagious laugh! She taught at Englewood for fifteen years, gaining the love, adoration and respect of her students, colleagues and the entire school community. Pam left behind a legacy of kindness, compassion, and generosity. She is survived by her loving husband Tyson and her beloved sons Bradley and Jake.
In Pam’s obituary, there was a line that read, “Family flowers only. In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be made to the Englewood School Playground Fund.”
Background:
In July 2022, the Englewood Home & School Executive hadn’t had a full complement in at least 3 years. As it stood, the President, Rachael Cameron, Treasurer, Krista Millar-Smith, and IT Advisor, Kyle Ferguson had only been a team for a few months. Englewood’s Home & School Association has been notoriously small, as the small rural school has less than 180 students from Kindergarten through Grade 9.
When we read the line in Pam’s obituary suggesting that donations could be made to the “Englewood Playground Fund”, we were all confused, because at that point there was no playground fund. As time went on it was revealed that it had been Pam’s wish for her school to receive a playground for Grades 4-6. Englewood has never had a play structure for this age group. At the time, Grades 4-6 had access to their own swing set, a GagaBall pit and a tennis & basketball court, but did not have a playground structure like the Kindergarten to Grade 3 students did. Pam and her family decided her memorial donations would support her wish before her passing. The Englewood School community decided to give Pam’s wish a name: “Pam’s Playground”.
As per the PEI Public Schools Branch Operational Procedure 202.1, Section, 4.4, “4.4 A school, Home and School Association or other school affiliate will be fully responsible for all costs related to site preparation, purchasing and installing playground equipment and protective surfaces, to CSA standards.”
What this meant for Englewood was that the entirety of the fundraising, organizing and arranging for the Pam’s Playground project was done by a very small volunteer complement. Englewood School hasn’t had a playground structure installed in over 25 years. We are extraordinarily proud of what we’ve managed to accomplish: in less than 2.5 years, we raised $227,000 and installed a brand new play structure. For a small community like Englewood, that is remarkable!
Timeline:
July 2022 - Pam Kelly passes away. The Englewood community learns of Pam’s playground wish.
September 2022 - The Englewood Home & School Association meets for their first monthly meeting of the school year and hits the ground running with fundraisers, with a lofty goal of raising $150,000 for this project. Throughout the fall and our meetings that followed, we discovered that the limited size of our volunteer pool meant that our Home & School Association and our Playground Fundraising Team would be one and the same. Our regular Home & School meetings (once a month) included updates on how fundraising was going. We decided that the Pam’s Playground project would involve the purchase and installation of a climbing play structure for the Grades 4-6 playground, as well as a makeover of the tennis/basketball court.
Fall 2022 - Pam's family, friends, colleagues and her community generously donated upon her passing to the Playground Fund. When her high school class held a reunion they also took the chance to take a collection for the playground fund. The Englewood community (Home & School Association, school staff, students and family volunteers) held several fundraisers in the fall of 2022, including a Halloween Spooktacular Community Carnival, a Coupon Book fundraiser, an ADL Cheese & Island Preserve Co jam fundraiser, an in-school Christmas Flea Market, and our school canteen donated the proceeds from selling treat bags & ice cream.
December 2022 - Our fundraising total stood around $22,000.
January 2023 - Once the new year hit we realized that in order to accomplish a task as monumental as this we weren't going to be able to solely rely on small-scale fundraising activities. We joined COSPEI Gold Rush, which is an online weekly draw. Participants choose a school to donate a portion of their entry fee to. We also started looking into corporate sponsorships. We were thrilled when we received our first big donation from a local business - The Blue Goose got the ball rolling! Once people started hearing more about our project, we started receiving donations from individuals, small and bigger businesses, and with each one we feel more connected to our community. There were many happy tears shed along the way as we realized just how far Pam's legacy - and the wonderful reputation of Englewood School - have reached.
May 2023 - Our fundraising total stood around $52,000. Right around this time we received word that the vendor we had chosen for our play structure had a massive cost increase. This meant that we had to increase our goal from $150,000 to $165,000. This was discouraging, but at this point we were seeing more community support and had momentum so we carried on!
June 2023 - We were thrilled to announce a gigantic donation from Cavendish Farms - $25,000! Donating such a large sum meant that Cavendish earned the right to have their logo on our new play structure when it is installed. This was a very generous month in that we saw a lot of corporate sponsorships roll in. We were also able to access a $25,000 grant from the Department of Education to go towards playground equipment. At the end of this month, our total stood around $111,000.
October 2023 - In June, we partnered with the Municipality of Crapaud to apply for funding through the Rural Growth Initiative Fund (a provincial grant). We applied for $50,000 and crossed our fingers hoping that this would complete our fundraising campaign. We were notified that we were actually given $100,000! This means that our total raised came to $227,000, blowing our initial goal of $165,000 out of the water!
Tennis Court/Basketball Court Makeover:
Between June 2023 and December 2023 we accomplished the following: cleaned the fence perimeter of weeds & bushes, had the pavement cracks filled, had the surface re-sealed, had the court repainted, added a storage bin containing sports equipment (removed during the winter), and added eight beautiful recycled plastic benches to the perimeter of the court. We were also able to access a Department of Education grant that provided us with TWO new Gaga Ball pits, one portable (that can be set up inside the gym) and one accessible, that has a side that swings open for easier access. We also purchased four portable Pickleball nets, paddles and balls. We are thrilled to report that there is now a thriving Pickleball community based out of Englewood School, “South Shore Pickleball.”
Accessibility Story:
The original plan for the play structure was for it to be a climbing structure for Grades 4-6. That was the original concept when we started fundraising in September 2022; at that point there were no initial plans to make this an inclusive or accessible structure.
Englewood School is built on a beautiful rolling hill, which means all of the pre-existing play equipment is accessed by walking down hills. Therefore, access is limited or impossible for students or staff with mobility or balance issues if they aren’t able to traverse a grassy hill. At the time, we didn’t have any students with permanent physical mobility needs who couldn’t access the spaces. However, inevitably a student (or two) will break a leg during the year, and that severely limits what they are able to access during outdoor playtime with their friends.
When we explored the idea of building a new play structure, the location that was chosen was to the south of the 
gymnasium, on a relatively flat section easily accessed by the parking lot and by the school’s accessible entrance. When we fundraised over our expected amount, we realized that this would be a great opportunity to expand the scope of this playground project (initially intended for Grades 4-6 only) and to add elements that would make this area more accessible for students with diverse needs. This included:
- Adding a 2 bay swing set with 3 standard swings and one inclusive seat
- Adding a few play pieces at ground level for students with mobility challenges to easily access
- Adding a ramp to the structure that leads to play panels
- Adding a playground piece called a, “Quiet Grove”, which faces away from the play space and serves our students with extra sensory needs
- Changing the standard playground pea gravel ground cover to manufactured wood chips, which are more easily traversed for people who use wheels to maneuver
- Adding a pathway from the parking lot to the playground area (still to come!)
- Adding benches to the play space (still to come!)
- Adding an accessible Gaga pit with a side that swings open (still to come!)
We explored additional pieces and adaptations that ultimately we couldn’t afford. We are thrilled with these additions as it allows more students, staff and families to be able to access this area.
November 2024: The play structure has been installed and is ready for play! The Gaga ball pit, pathway, benches, and Pam’s Playground sign are still in the works. Our grand opening will happen at a later date.
We are so grateful for the community support we had with this enormous project. It wouldn’t have been possible without your help! Thank you!
- Englewood Home & School Association