Weldon Playground Project co-director Jamie Petrie hugs Chief Calvin Sanderson of the Chakastaypasin Band moments after it was announced that James Smith Cree Nation will be donating $116,000 towards the new playground in Weldon. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW Staff)

By Logan Lehmann

Helping hand

‘It gets us our playground’: James Smith Cree Nation donates $116k to Weldon Playground Project

Apr 13, 2024 | 5:11 PM

Tears of joy overwhelmed many of those who attended a pancake breakfast fundraiser in Weldon on Saturday morning.

The town’s residents and people from neighbouring communities joined together at the Weldon Auditorium for the fundraiser which helped raise money for a new playground in the town in honour of a fallen member of their community, Wes Petterson, who was one of the eleven victims of Myles Sanderson during his mass stabbing rampage back in September 2022. He was the only victim from Weldon while the other ten were from James Smith Cree Nation (JSCN).

Wes Petterson was 78 when he was fatally stabbed in September 2022. (Submitted photo/RCMP)

The Weldon Playground Project was created in February with the goal of raising $150,000 for the new playground and during the pancake breakfast fundraiser on Saturday, the playground committee received a major boost in funding.

JSCN Chief Kirby Constant along with Chief Calvin Sanderson of the Chakastaypasin Band and Councillor Adam Whitehead of the Peter Chapman Band were all on hand for the event where they presented a cheque to the fundraising committee members for $116,000 to help build the playground.

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“We’re speechless,” said Jamie Petrie, co-director of the Weldon Playground Project. “We were definitely not expecting this. We figured we would be having at least a dozen more pancake breakfasts.”

“[This donation] gets us our playground,” she continued. “That covers all the costs of the equipment and everything else that we need. We just need to fundraise for the rest of the rubberized surfaces, but that pretty much covered our whole… we will have our playground this summer.”

On top of the large donation, JSCN also gifted the town a hand-painted portrait that was done by a local artist as a token of their appreciation that will hang in the auditorium for the rest of its time.

The Weldon Playground Project committee, along with some local and Federal dignitaries, stand beside a locally painted portrait that James Smith Cree Nation donated to the Town of Weldon on Saturday. Left to right, Prince Albert MP Randy Hoback, Peter Chapman Band Councillor Adam Whitehead, Chief Calvin Sanderson of the Chakastaypasin Band, co-directors of the Weldon Playground Project Jamie Petrie, Chelsey Erickson, Jeanette Dubois, and Pat Davis, and James Smith Cree Nation Chief Kirby Constant. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW Staff)

Chief Sanderson of the Chakastaypasin Band spoke to the media following the cheque presentation and said this donation was in the works for some time.

“We been thinking about this for quite a while, our team,” he said. “We also have a wellness team back at home that’s looking at building a wellness centre so we thought that maybe while they were fundraising for the playground in Weldon, the committee thought ‘let’s contribute something to that’. Part of that wellness is part of Weldon too and we wanted to welcome the community with open arms with the donation. It’s a good start.”

Chief Constant said that this donation is another step towards reconciliation.

“The donation came from our Northern Lights Corporation Development Ltd. and every quarter, we have some money that we come by and we utilize it to enhance our communities,” he explained. “We felt that this time, [it was] time to give back to other communities other than our own, kind of that reconciliation process and a nation to nation building kind of thing where we can help other communities besides our own. We’re all one big cohesive community in Saskatchewan so it’s good on our part to help communities [that are] suffering just as much as ours.”

(l to r) Peter Chapman Band Councillor Adam Whitehead, James Smith Cree Nation Chief Kirby Constant, and Chief Calvin Sanderson of the Chakastaypasin Band present the cheque to members of the Weldon Playground Project. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW Staff)

“I know we’ve always gotten along in the past and we’ve always been good neighbours and I think now they’re going to be able to rely on us more if they ever need help. They can come to us instead of going to the provincial government or municipality government and so we can start building that partnership for stuff like this.”

To add to the day, Prince Albert MP Randy Hoback also attended the event and brought a gift to the family of Wes Petterson on behalf of the Federal Government. Hoback presented Wes Petterson’s sister-in-law with a Canadian flag that was flown on the Peace Tower at Parliament Hill in Ottawa. He added that he will gift an additional Peace Tower flag to the town of Weldon which will be flown at the playground once it’s completed, and he will gift a third Peace Tower flag to JSCN later this summer.

With the Weldon Playground Project now less than $35,000 away from their goal, Petrie mentioned that there is still work to do.

“Everybody thought we had pipe dreams and we’re like no, we know that we’re going to get a playground, we’re going to work our butts off and do what we can. We have a bottle drive next week, we have a silent auction online, and in June we have a community-wide family fun day planned.”

A rendering of what the playground will look like. (Chelsey Erickson/Facebook)

She added that the family fun day will feature a petting zoo, dunk tank, garage sales, and a barbecue among many other activities.

The online auction runs from April 18-24 and can be found by clicking here.

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com