Making life in Kamloops sweeter and happier

Changes to Kamloops

Photo: KTW file

The kids wading pool in Prince Charles Park in Kamloops

With spring pushing its way into our lives, I think it is time to revisit some thoughts I shared in the past.

It was a beautiful, sunny day back then when I wandered into Prince Charles park and watched children playing in the wading pool there. It was just another wonderful day in Kamloops, except the wading pool took on special meaning that resonates today, courtesy of a small plaque on the pool marking its beginning.

Sixty-eight years ago, the city built that pool. On the northwest corner of the pool is a plaque which reads, “To make life sweeter and the world happier."

It certainly has done that, providing not just fun for children but bringing together community. That is what builds Kamloops—our drive to make things better, and to strengthen community.

We have that opportunity again today. The legal challenge against the Alternative Approval process the city used to move forward with its Build Kamloops vision has ended. The city can soon put shovels in the ground to build a performing arts centre and the much-needed arena multiplex.

Those are amenities that will help our community grow, just as that small wading pool did back in 1957. Kamloops is no longer that dusty cowtown I wrote about in the past. The stockyards are gone and the Pavilion Theatre was built in its place but it is a venue that is now inadequate for large performing arts events.

Sandman Centre was built where the land was housed a slaughterhouse. We built the Tournament Capital Centre on vacant land and we now host many major sporting events, as Canada's “Tournament Capital.”

The vision our city had when it gave our kids a place to splash and play lives on. As we build in Kamloops, we grow community. We make life sweeter and our world happier.

Nancy Bepple is a Kamloops city councillor.