Kananaskis Country’s William Watson Lodge celebrated a ribbon cutting ceremony for its comfort camping facility June 20.
Banff-Cochrane MLA Cameron Westhead, manager of special facilities for Alberta Parks Michael Roycroft and William Watson Lodge manager Ross Watson were all in attendance to celebrate and acknowledge the hard work and dedication put forth to enable and ensure disabled Albertans may enjoy access to outdoor recreation.
The William Watson Lodge Society’s current mandate is committed to providing a $450,000 upgrade of the campground; add seven additional sites with full-service and complete accessible washroom facilities. The mandate also includes a $175,000 wheelchair accessible interpretive nature trail, which won the Bronze Canada award for its design.
“A lot of people came back and expressed real positive interest about having comfort care available, and through comments and users we brought it to the board and Ross (Watson) was really supportive of it and we voted and decided to have it put into place,” said society board president Wayne Pelletier.
The project took close to two years to reach completion, with a grant from the Alberta government being an important linchpin in funding the facility.
“(Former MLA) Ron Casey called us to his office last July and presented us a cheque and we received $31,000 and we’re taking that and also money we have in the society, and the plan is to get this one done this summer and then look at putting another one onsite by next year,” Pelletier said.
The William Watson Lodge works in partnership with Alberta Parks to provide the ability for advanced camping for persons with disabilities and seniors. The project was made possible through McKay Hlavacek Architects and funding through the William Watson Lodge Society.
“I think its great that the William Watson Lodge Society has put so much time and effort into making sure that camping and the outdoors are accessible to all Albertans,” Westhead said. “It’s great to see that we’re an inclusive society and are making sure that people have the ability to enjoy the outdoors, and all the hard work that the board has done and volunteers that have put the work into this has come true now and can accommodate people better.
“Part of people identifying themselves as Albertans is enjoying the outdoors and the wilderness that we have here in Alberta – and we want to make sure everyone has the ability to enjoy what Alberta has to offer.”
