Welcome
Children and parent’s alike were elated to discover that the Strathroy Rotary Club Splash Pad finally opened for the 2020 season on June 17th and it couldn’t have happened at a better time with the hot, steamy, summer weather coming in on us. The splash pad has been enjoyed by hundreds of children since May of 2013 when it initially opened.
The whole idea of a splash pad in Strathroy was conceived in 2011 by Tim Hanna, The Recreation Director at that time, and Chris Das, Strathroy Rotary Club President for that year. Chris then brought the idea back to the Rotary Club who decided this would be a very worthwhile project to get behind. This would be a huge undertaking for the club with a total to be fundraised of $250,000. However, the club presented the plan to the town and asked for their approval and for their assistance of a loan for $100,000. Because of the size of this project the town agreed to the loan and a formal contract was prepared between the town and the club for the loan to be paid off over a number of years.
After getting this agreement drawn up some members from the town council along with a few members of the Rotary Club took a bus trip to view splash pads in other municipalities, with one of those being the town of St. Thomas which proved to be a plan that would influence the design of Strathroy’s splash pad. In 2012 a design and construction contract were all drawn up and the fundraising began. The whole pad was built in 2013 and, as mentioned previously, opened that May. The club’s personal fundraising came mostly from it’s annual golf tournament but also other little fundraisers they created and participated in. Besides money raised by the club they were very grateful to receive other corporate and personal donations from various other sources. Three of those major contributors were Entegrus, The Trillium Foundation and Andy McDonald.
The generosity of all our donors helped significantly with this project and the Strathroy Rotary Club is proud to say the loan the town provided has been paid off as well. This splash pad is a well used facility in our town and is just another great example of how the Town of Strathroy-Caradoc works together with the local service clubs to bring enjoyable attractions to our beautiful community.