The tennis court on the Roland Pumpkin Fair (RPF) property is going to look a lot different this summer, thanks to a couple grants given to the Rural Municipality (RM) of Roland from Southern Health Sante Sud ($1800) and Homestead Coop (8 gallons of paint), according to RPF committee member Carrie Hennan.
Background information
Hennan said the tennis court was originally paid for by the Roland Bingo Committee back in the 90s. The land where it is located is now owned by the Roland Pumpkin Fair. With the cost to resurface the tennis courts out of reach for the committee, a plan to paint a sensory path and add a basketball court got the ball rolling.
Knowing the tennis courts were not being used very much, the committee decided to budget for the changes and apply for these grants. When the community heard about the changes, a request to add a pickleball court was made and incorporated as well.
Hennan said the pickleball court will fit nicely in one half of the space, and two basketball nets will be on either side of the other end of the court, making a small court for people to play basketball on.
RES students took the lead in helping the project
During the last days of the school year, Grade five and six Roland Elementary School (RES) students took time to paint the tennis court's pad, but their contributions started before the physical work began.
RES Grade 5/6 teacher Vannessa Millions explained.
"We are working on our class and town project, which is redoing our tennis courts in town. We designed a little sensory pathway and a little project that they worked on together as a class. And so, they get to use their designs that they created in class to see it in fruition and actually paint it on the tennis court."
It fits in with the classroom curriculum.
"We did that as part of one of our art projects. Everyone got to design their own design and have an input, whether they liked basketball or whether they liked Spiderman, for example. Whatever they liked, they got to incorporate it into their own design. Then we got to vote on which one we thought would be the best, and so that's the one that we submitted. They took that design they incorporated it into the big blueprint that is now out there. It was just an amazing opportunity for them to work together and to get something out there that they can use every day."
"It's like a movie," one student described his involvement
Grade 5/6 student John shared his thoughts on being involved in the process.
"It's like a movie, because sometimes a movie can start out boring and just like plain white, because we started with plain white (primer), but then we started to add more colour. And that's how a movie works, because to me, colour means action. There's more action getting to it."
What will it look like?
Grade 5/6 student Hannah described the pattern that will eventually be painted over the bright yellow, green, blue, and red colours.
"There's going to be 4 squares, there's three different 4 squares, and there's going to be a corn maze and pumpkin vines in there."
Grade 5/6 student Mackenzie added what some of the other symbols will represent and what it's been like to paint the tennis court.
"They're planning to put little clovers on them, like for 4H, and we're planning to get some pumpkins on there, and we've got two things (sheets) of hopscotch that we're going to put different colours into. It's really fun so far."
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She shared her thoughts on being included in the process as a young member of Roland.
"It's just really fun and so cool to be helping our community with this thing that everybody is going to be able to use, and I'm super excited to see what it looks like when it's all done."
Donations and help are still needed
The goal is to complete the project by the end of the month. Hennan said exterior paint donations are gratefully accepted, as well as any volunteers who would like to help finish the project off.
