The City of Brantford and the East Ward/Echo Place Neighborhood Association recently celebrated the grand openings of two new parks in Brantford.

Mohawk Park received some renovations and some of the new features include new playground equipment, a swing set and a new hill slide.

Orchard park, on the other hand, celebrated its opening that included the unveiling of some new junior playground equipment designed for children of younger ages (ages two to five) and senior equipment designed for older children (ages five to 12) and some new swings as well. 

The renovations happened over a year ago but, due to the pandemic, they were officially celebrated by the community last weekend, June 4. 

Paul Macdougall, president of the East Ward/Echo Place Neighborhood Association, said approximately 400 residents came out to support the event, which included children's entertainment, vendors, live music and some community organizations that were present to table the event. Pizza and cake were also provided to visitors. 

This grand opening is one of many that the City of Brantford is holding for new parks being celebrated in the community. Macdougall said it was exciting for the community to be getting these parks.

“Updating parks and playground equipment is an amazing thing, and the city did a really great job on both of those playground structures, and they add so much value to the community, for the kids, for their parents, and for seniors,” he said.

With pandemic restrictions lifting, the surrounding neighborhoods and residents of these parks will definitely take advantage of the spaces this summer. Macdougall said that in 2019, before the pandemic started, the association was having a great time with all these events and the association is now looking forward to getting back out into the community and celebrating together once again. 

Some upcoming events the East Ward/Echo Place Neighborhood Association are holding are Drum Circles, happening the last Saturday of every month throughout the summer at Mohawk Park and Music In The Park, hopefully happening sometime in September at Alexandra Park.

The association also run a food initiative called Branching Out Brantford: it's a fruit tree registry where residents who have a fruit tree on their property who don't use the tree can sign up for this initiative where the association will come by the residence to pick the fruit and share it with the homeowner and the community as well.

Anyone interested in the East Ward/Echo Place Neighborhood Association events and updates is urged to follow and check out their social media pages.

Listen to the full story below: