Grand Opening for the East Gwillimbury HALP October 17-19
This weekend, East Gwillimbury’s Health and Active Living Plaza (HALP) will open its doors to residents with a three-day community party. The celebrations at the 85,000-square-foot facility at 160 Jim Mortson Dr. will run Oct. 17 from 5 to 9 p.m. and Oct. 18 and 19 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The HALP is a welcome addition, offering the town’s first aquatics centre, a new library, program spaces with teaching kitchen, gymnasium and indoor boardwalk. The design includes Net Zero and East Gwillimbury’s ‘Thinking Green’ standards.
For more details, you can read the full article from YorkRegion.com, and below are some of the highlights they pointed out:
Here are some of the highlights of the HALP
- Many design features are inspired by drumlins, glacial landforms found in the community.
- The indoor 2,600-sqaure-foot playground is made with many natural features, with the aim of combatting nature deficit disorder in children during the fall and winter months. It features a compression floor.
- East Gwillimbury is working to bring patients needing therapeutic water programs to the aquatic centre.
- The event street in front of the HALP will be used for socializing, outdoor recreation, cultural activities and festivals. The event street was named “Mino Bimoseyaang” (pronounced Min-uh Bim-uh-say-ahng), an Anishinaabemowin term meaning “We are walking well (living in a good way),” a name gifted by Georgina Island First Nation and Indigenous knowledge holder Kelsey Trivett.
- There is a large gym that can be divided into three sections, for basketball, volleyball, floor hockey, pickleball and badminton.
- The second floor of the gym features the walking/running track, as well as fitness and cardio areas.
- There are public art displays placed along the main hall, which is called the boardwalk.
- Many spaces have direct access to the future outdoor park and amenities such as barbecues and a pizza oven outside the kitchen and Muskoka chairs outside the library.
- More than 100,000 people are expected to use the HALP every year.
- Zoup! is the food vendor, selling healthy food and beverage options.
Here are some highlights of the library
- It has about 28,000 items for checkout.
- The library includes children’s, adult and teen literature, media, video games and multilingual collections.
- There are 14 public internet stations, including children’s computers and a children’s literacy station offering kid-friendly games.
- The makerspace and design studio features a wide variety of equipment such as a 3D printer, a laser cutter that cuts through wood, rubber and leather and engraves ceramics, glass and coated metal stone, a button maker and more.
- The Library of Things collection includes lots of items that people might want to enjoy but not purchase themselves, including a karaoke machine, walking poles, a projector, a microscope, a telescope, an automotive code reader and more.
We are proud to be part of the team for this project, providing commissioning to ensure quality control!