A rendering of the new inclusive playground at the BC Wildlife Park. (Image Credit: BC Wildlife Park/Habitat)

By Victor Kaisar

New Accessible Playground

BC Wildlife Park moving ahead with accessible playground project after years of fundraising

Dec 7, 2025 | 1:34 PM

KAMLOOPS — The BC Wildlife Park is moving ahead with its new accessible playground project following years of fundraising.

The latest boost to the coffers comes via another $10,000 contribution from the Tim Hortons Holiday Smile Cookie campaign, which ended on Nov. 20.

“This is the third year in a row that [Kamloops Tim Hortons] selected us, so in total its now $30,200 from the Holiday Smile Cookie campaign,” BC Wildlife Park General Manager Glenn Grant said.

“We’re pretty close to having between $700,000 and $800,000 committed to the project, so we’re well on our way to get things going.”

The accessible playground was included in the park’s master plan four years ago, and Grant said the fundraising campaign started about three years ago.

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“It will be fully accessible and all-inclusive so there will be components for children of every ability,” Grant added. “As we got going on some of the planning, we expanded the scope a bit more to include the splash park because it needed to revamped as well.”

The budget for the combined project is $1.3-million, Grant added.

He told CFJC that some demolition work was done this year, with construction expected to ramp up in the spring ahead of an opening date in the summer.

“We can also do work in stages as more funds become available,” Grant said. “With the splash park removed, we want to get that up and operating and get some of the accessible play features installed and usable.”

“We broke it down so we can do the work in three or four stages so its not such a long delay. We’ve got traction now and some really great donations that have come in, and it gives us an opportunity to get going.”