Barrie family finishes goal of visiting 104 city parks
While much of the province was closed over the last year, one Barrie family found a way to make the most of the COVID-19 restrictions.
With little to no travel options and many indoor facilities shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tim DeLong decided to spruce up the cliché family trips to the park. Instead of constantly revisiting their favourite, Patterson Park, DeLong chose to create a family mission to visit all of Barrie's parks.
To DeLong's surprise, there were far more than he ever expected.
"We had done, I don't know, a handful of them, and then when I put in the spreadsheet, and I saw there was over 100 of them, I was a little bit intimidated, but I thought let's make it systematic, have fun and as long as the kids were having fun, I was willing to do it," DeLong says.
The city of Barrie offers more than 100 city parks with play structures and different activities throughout the city.
"I've lived here all my life, I grew up in Barrie, and I had no idea there were more than 20 parks," says Rebekah DeLong, Tim's wife and mother of their three children. "I think it gives a really good opportunity of safe, fun family things people can do and a challenge if you're up for it to try to see how many you can get in over the summer."
The DeLong family recently reached their goal, taking their kids to every park throughout the city. It served as a way to keep the family busy and teach the kids the valuable lesson of sticking to a task and accomplishing it.
"You can kind of see the goal on my fridge," Tim says. "I have two sheets of paper, and they've got all the parks, and they've got checkboxes by them, and every time we went, we did a couple parks, two or three parks, the kids would come home, they'd check them off and to see that slowly you can accomplish a goal, that would be great if they could take that away."
After visiting each park, a photo of the three siblings was taken in front of the sign. Once he posted the compilation to social media, it garnered the attention of Barrie Mayor Jeff Lehman.
"I mean, if you think about that, 104 playgrounds. You could go to one every three days and never go to the same playground twice in the course of the year," Lehman says. "So it's one of those things during COVID, we've all had to adapt, we've all had to get used to doing more things outside. I'm just glad that this family was able to enjoy so much of it, and it reflects the kind of city I think we are.
The DeLong family is grateful that the decision to close parks once again at the peak of the third wave this past spring was reversed. Tim says the kids enjoyed the challenge.
"At first, I thought when I would visit a park with my adult eyes, okay, this looks just like our park, the kids are going to be bored in a heartbeat. But they would find sand toys; they would bring sand toys, they would play with new friends, they would find a way to make the park different even if it had the same structures!"
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'Still so much love between us,' Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
What to know about avian influenza in dairy cows and the risk to humans
Why is H5N1, or bird flu, a concern, how does it spread, and is there a vaccine? Here are the answers to some frequently asked questions about avian influenza.
'I was scared': Ontario man's car repossessed after missing two repair loan payments
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
opinion The special relationship between King Charles and the Princess of Wales
Royal commentator Afua Hagan writes that when King Charles recently admitted Catherine to the Order of the Companions of Honour, it not only made history, but it reinforced the strong bond between the King and his beloved daughter-in-law.
Pro-plastic lobbyist presence at UN talks is 'troubling,' say advocates
Environmentalist groups are sounding the alarm about a steep increase in the number of pro-plastic lobbyists at the UN pollution talks taking place this week.
'Too young to have breast cancer': Rates among young Canadian women rising
Breast cancer rates are rising in Canada among women in their 20s, 30s and 40s, according to research by the University of Ottawa (uOttawa).
Charlie Woods, son of Tiger, shoots 81 in U.S. Open qualifier
Charlie Woods failed to advance in a U.S. Open local qualifying event Thursday, shooting a 9-over 81 at Legacy Golf & Tennis Club.
$70M Lotto Max winners kept prize a secret from family for 2 months
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
Trump's lawyers grill ex-tabloid publisher as 1st week of hush money trial testimony nears a close
After prosecutors' lead witness painted a tawdry portrait of “catch-and-kill” tabloid schemes, defence lawyers in Donald Trump's criminal trial on Friday sought to dig into an account of the former publisher of the National Enquirer and his efforts to protect Trump from negative stories during the 2016 election.