PeaceKeeper Park, Elgin County, Ontario Canada

TUESDAY, 12 SEPT 06
     Peacekeeper Park, A Living Memorial, has been extremely fortunate in that we have recently received a grant from the Libro Credit Union that will enable us to build our First Aid Room. Libro, formerly St. Willibrord Credit Union, has a long history of contributing to worthy organizations in the southwestern Ontario communities where their customer-owners live, work and play. The grant is designed to support projects that involve young people up to age 23 by helping them develop leadership skills through participation in community projects.
     The Cadets of 11 RCACC Strathroy volunteered to spearhead the First Aid Room project and this evening they held their first organizational meeting. Three representatives from Libro were present along with Cadet adult leaders who will act as mentors throughout the project. The Youth Committee will extend an invitation to other youth groups in the area to participate in the project and have already set the date, the weekend of 23/24 Sept, as their first work detail at the Park. Their objectives for that weekend are to clean up the site, remove the siding from the existing building, and begin their training on framing techniques.
     Peacekeeper Park is very proud of these young Canadians and sincerely appreciates the funding from Libro and the enthusiasm which the Youth Committee have shown towards this project. Watch this site for further progress reports.

22 -24 Sep 06 - Our First Work Weekend
     Our group arrived Friday evening, got settled in for the weekend and had a meeting with Maj. Smith at 8 PM. We agreed that the over-all purpose for the weekend was to learn and apply the principles of site preparation. After our safety briefing we listed the End State Objectives as:
1.   Have fun                                           2.   Learn new skills
3.   Existing siding removed in re-useable condition.
4.   Typar applied to exposed portion of existing building.
5.   Lay out new room 10' x 16' with square corners
7.   Establish grade                              8.   Remove top soil
9.   Add sand/gravel                           10. Dig foundation trench
     The siding, and it's insulation, were removed; the siding washed and then bundled and stored for future use. We then learned how to use a level and how to measure corner to corner to lay out the room. We removed some top soil and replaced it with sand and gravel. Next came the hardest part of the weekend - digging the trench for the cement. We finished everything by 10:30 AM on Sunday and left for home at 1 PM.

25 Nov 06 - Our Second Work Weekend
We've been waiting for the cement to be poured which was held up by the poor weather. We decided to go ahead and do the wall framing and then install the walls once the floor had been poured. This weekend we had two new mentors who really taught us a lot about framing and why it's done a certain way. At the end of the day, we had framed both end walls and the main wall with openings for a door and a window.

Saturday, 19 May 07
Worked for a day building the wooden floor. Put in the floor joists, cross-braced them and put chicken wire under the joists. Then we filled between the joists with insulation and put on the sub-flooring.

16/17 June 07
A busy weekend but got lots done. We installed the framing we had previously built and then put up the roof rafters. Then we nailed on the roofing panels, installed the flashings and put on the shingles. Still had some panels left, so we closed in the north wall and installed the window and door and covered that wall with Typar.

23 June 07
Small group of us finished panelling the two end walls.

23 July 07
The young people involved in this project are away for awhile so I'm updating their page for them. Some are at Cadet Training Camps and some have gone to Kenya, via England, to build a library for the Kenyan children. They've taken books with them and it should be a very good experience for them. Their work on this Libro project will certainly help them with the construction of the new library. Well done gang.
Before they left, they managed to get all the siding and flashing installed and the tile floor laid. They had the help of two excellent mentors, George and Mike, and did a tremendous job. They've installed some of the insulation but had to leave some so the tradesmen could install the wiring and plumbing. One more weekend when they return and the project will be ready for use.