New Portapique playground a result of community hope, resilience
CBC
A drum beat softly and steadily as sacred smoke drifted around the brilliant fall trees surrounding Portapique's new playground, offering protection and a new beginning.
The rural Nova Scotia community officially opened a new playground on Sunday, roughly a year and a half after a gunman began a deadly shooting in the area that would cross the province and claim 22 lives.
"The project has been ... a forum for people to give, where people didn't know how to help after the tragedy," said Portapique resident Andrew MacDonald after the park's ribbon cutting.
"We wanted it to be a place where people can focus their energies without feeling helpless."
The playground of grey wooden beams, green slides and a log swing is the first phase of a community building project.
The second phase will see the adjacent historic Portapique Community Hall, built in the 1830s, lifted up and redesigned into a new, larger building where dances, weddings and community events can take place.
MacDonald, president of the hall's board of trustees, said Sunday was a proud day for so many people in the community who spent hours each week planning, clearing the land or watering the new grass. A local business, Cobequid Consulting, designed and built the new playground.
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