Construction of a play park in Riverview, N.B in honour of the late Becca Schofield is underway and moving along quickly.

Volunteers started building the Rebecca Schofield All World Super Play Park on Tuesday and are hoping to have a grand opening June 17, according to project manager Sean Rollo.

“The park itself is going to have a lot of different features for people of all abilities — children of all abilities, as well as the parents and grandkids, aunts, uncles that are coming,” Rollo says.

“It’s a completely accessible playground.”

“[Rebecca] never got to know that it was going to be named after her,” Anne Schofield says of her daughter. “I think she’d be quite excited because this is a park she grew up on, this is a tangible thing that her name is attached to, something that was a part of her life as far back as she could remember.”

Anne Schofield, the late Rebecca Schofield’s mother, says her daughter spent a lot of time at the All World Super Play Park growing up

The former park, built with wood in 1994, was aging and becoming a safety concern.

Schofield, whose kindness campaign went viral with the hashtag #BeccaToldMeTo, passed away after a battle with brain cancer in February 2018. But her legacy continues to live on.

“Just the notion of being kinder than necessary, paying things forward, doing kind acts for others… It’s part of our climate, it’s part of our culture at Frank L. Bowser School,” says Jonathan Godbout, the principal.

“Each and every day we see examples of that influence.”

The campaign reached its $650,000 fundraising target and is closing in on another fundraiser, which will be used as a contingency fund.

Aside from the outdoor activity, Godbout says the park is also providing a variety of learning opportunities.

“Ideally, what we’re able to do is leverage the activity out here within the classroom, so our students are coming out and watching the build and maybe going back in and doing a descriptive writing piece or procedural writing piece,” he says.

“Our grade five students ran a circuit and are using that in their math class.”

Jonathan Godbout, the principal at Frank L. Bowser Elementary School, says Rebecca’s legacy lives on among students and the community as a whole

There’s an important call for volunteers to help out, especially in the evenings and weekends as crews are on an aggressive build schedule. They hope to finish construction by Monday.

 Needless to say, the park will yet again assure the legacy of the late teen with a big heart will continue to live on.

“It’s always going to be there, her name is going to be there… I can just come down for a walk and sit and just, like, remember,” says Anne Schofield.

“When you have somebody — a loved one — pass away, what you cherish is those memories. This is bringing back memories; this is actually making memories for everybody that’s here.”

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