Melfort Mayor Rick Lang (right) receives the Dr. Lucija Čikeš Award from Croatia on behalf of the city from Melfort Communities in Bloom. (Aaron Schulze/northeastNOW Staff)

By Aaron Schulze

International Recognition

Melfort Communities in Bloom receives international award for Spruce Haven Playground

Mar 10, 2020 | 5:23 PM

The City of Melfort added to its collection of Communities in Bloom (CiB) awards on the walls of city hall.

Melfort CiB presented the framed Dr. Lucija Čikeš Award from the 2019 INTERSTAS (International Festival of Tourism) – ITF’CRO (International tour film festival) – KEA-CRO (Presentation of Croatian towns/place) Awards in Solin, Croatia. The award is given in recognition of a community which assists people with special needs and challenges, and Melfort’s Spruce Haven Accessible Playground took the honour in November 2019.

Peggy George with Melfort CiB said they wanted to present the award to the city, because the award is also for the community.

“What we do is for the whole community and the whole community pitches in one way or another,” George said. “[City hall] is where it should be hanging. We’re pretty honoured to have another part of the world hear about our little part of the world.”

George said Canada CiB’s national office suggested to the Melfort chapter that the accessible playground would qualify for the Dr. Lucija Čikeš Award.

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Once it was announced the playground won, Melfort CiB was left flabbergasted.

“We hadn’t thought that far ahead,” George said. “Just to win our way to be able to compete nationally was big and exciting, and now we’re talking international.”

Melfort Mayor Rick Lang described the award coming Melfort’s way and getting international recognition as “rewarding.”

“[The intent] was to build an all-accessibility playground to address the needs of our many different citizens. Some of them have challenges with respect to being able to work and play, and in this case, we tried to address the issue that it should be inclusive to all and it appears that we succeeded. It’s a good feeling to know the original intent was met, and that playground is seen as all-inclusive by not only us, but people outside of our community,” Lang told northeastNOW.

CiB in 2020

The Dr. Lucija Čikeš Award was the cherry on top for Melfort CiB’s 2019. The group participated in the national CiB competition for the first time in the 2,501 to 7,000 population category.

Melfort CiB received a score of 82.5 per cent – 2.5 per cent short of a bronze rating – and an Outstanding Achievement Award for landscaping and a special mention for the meditation garden at the city’s cemetery.

When the snow and ice melt, Melfort CiB won’t have many new projects to tackle when they participate nationally again in the summer. George said some of the main focuses will be to install the donor sign for the Weeping Willow sculpture at the cemetery and fill the community garden at Spruce Haven Park.

“We’re calling this a maintenance year,” she said. “Just to finish up some of the things we started and maybe do a little bit more on the areas we’re already focusing on.”

The hope for Melfort CiB is to start working on environmental action, floral displays, heritage conservation, landscape urban forestry, and tidiness by May 4, the traditional beginning of Communities in Bloom Week in Canada.

George said they expect to welcome the judges to Melfort during the third week of July, although the dates have not been confirmed.

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow