Around 2 p.m. Friday, the laughter and screaming of children echoed throughout the area around Project Playground on Meridian Street in Sault Ste. Marie.
To much surprise, the City of Sault Ste. Marie and the organizers of the Soo Splash Pad turned the water on at the park for everyone to enjoy.
The original plan was to repair, test then winterized the equipment and have it open up next spring, but with the weather being so cooperative with warm and dry conditions in the forecast for the next several days, the City of Sault Ste. Marie generously opened up the splash pad.
You might have called it a trial run to make sure all the technical bugs, if any, were worked out of the system.
Unfortunately, an issue was noticed and the park will be closed until it is fixed. Organizers say it should be corrected by early next week.
The idea for the park arose in 2019. Then the COVID pandemic hit and delayed everything. The goal was to open the park up at the end of June, but then the splash pad was vandalized and that set back the official Grand Opening even further down the road.
But Friday afternoon was special to see the children and parents have fun getting wet.
Lisa Young is one of the volunteers on the splash pad committee. Her children were one of the first ones Friday afternoon to use the water park.
"My kids love it! They can play in water all day! It's hot today! They could not wait until they were done with repairs," Young said.
Kristen Richard and her husband brought her kids to the splash pad.
"We have been waiting for this. We come to Project Playground frequently and we always looked at the splash pad to see the process of it. My kids would always ask when it was going to open," Richard said.
Then Richard saw a Facebook Live post by Young around 2 p.m. indicating the splash pad was open.
"We just had to come seeing that it was open. We brought some pizza and tested out the water. The water was great. Not too cold. The kids had a blast," added Richard.
Adding the splash pad to the Project Playground property was a great idea. "It's just so exciting that we have the park. We have the water to just have a cool down and have fun. You have the slides, you have the water. It's a perfect location for families," continued Richard.
You can follow all updates on the Soo Splash Pad on its Facebook page.
