Ski park renamed, new park planned to honour Paralympians

P.E.I.'s most recent Paralympian medallists — para ice hockey player Billy Bridges and biathlete and cross-country skier Mark Arendz — will have their names on recreational sites on the Island.

A new park for Bridges and a renaming for Arendz

Natalia Goodwin · CBC News · Posted: Apr 04, 2018 6:18 AM EDT | Last Updated: April 4, 2018

The two athletes addressed the crowd at a celebration on Tuesday night (Natalia Goodwin/CBC )

P.E.I.'s most recent Paralympian medallists — para ice hockey player Billy Bridges and biathlete and cross-country skier Mark Arendz — will have their names on recreational sites on the Island.

The news was announced at a celebration of the two athletes Tuesday night.

Arendz's reaction after the announcement (Matt Rainnie/CBC)

"This is really a shared legacy to have these two important facilities that will be for the citizens of Summerside and the province on an ongoing bases." said Premier Wade MacLauchlan

Brookvale Provincial Ski Park is now officially named Mark Arendz Provincial Ski Park, the signs are expected to be changed in the near future. Arendz, who won six medals in Pyeongchang, grew up on the course. He was still letting the news sink in after the event Tuesday night.

"It was a tremendous honour," he said.

"Hopefully that will be a reminder to everyone that they can achieve anything, you know, coming from the smallest province in the country to achieve great things across the world."

Bridges Park in Summerside

In Summerside a fully accessible park and playground will be built and named Billy Bridges Park. For the silver medal winning hockey player, it is about more than just his name on a park.

"Now that I have a two year old daughter and I'm now starting to realize the difficulties that there are, with having a child, being in a wheelchair. And my daughter is rambunctious as ever and loves to run and jump and play, and I love following her around, but there's not many place that I can go do it," he said

"To be able to have a park where I can wheel around with her and chase her around and play hide and seek and do all these things that I loved to do when I was a kid, it's pretty special."

Both athletes received an award from the province. (Natalia Goodwin/CBC )

The City of Summerside has been trying for two years to get accessible equipment, just putting aside the money in this year's budget, but a plan was a while off. Now with help from the province it will be a reality sooner. The new park for Bridges will cost around $80,000, split 50/50 with the province.

"Up until this year the city has not had one single piece of accessible equipment," said Coun. Tyler DesRoches, chair of the community services and recreation committee.

"What it means for our residents is that no child will ever be left behind. They'll always be a place for them to play."

Arendz signs one of many autographs after the celebration. (Natalia Goodwin/CBC )

The park will be built behind the existing Notre Dame Park. The city is also building a accessible splash pad on Maple Ave. The hope is the Bridges Park will be ready for an unveiling in July when Bridges is visiting Summerside with his family.