OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication).
Last week, I was dismayed to see the reappearance of this ‘park’ at Moose Beach and the subsequent promotion of it in OrilliaMatters, titled, ‘Business of fun’: Water park set to open Saturday at Tudhope Park.
The irony of this title would be infuriating if it wasn’t so woefully appropriate. The business of fun?
Fun is not a commodity.
For many generations, Orillia children and youth have been grabbing their towels off backyard clotheslines and heading off to one of the many wonderful beaches surrounding our town. Spending the day playing king of the castle, dive and find, building sand castles, looking for shells and stones — this joy has always been free to everyone. Placing a ‘business’ at Moose Beach monetizes an experience that should never have a price tag.
Crunch the numbers — according to the article, “the cost is $23 for kids and $11.50 for chaperones. That entitles participants to play at the park for two hours.”
What if I am a single dad with three children? If I need to be a chaperone, this would cost $80 — for two hours. After we’ve had our turn at the water park, I can then spend the rest of the afternoon trying to convince my kids that we can still have fun playing in the sand on shore while trying to ignore the shrieking from the kids lucky enough to have parents with deep pockets. And how about the next day? Every day, $80?
Privatizing our public spaces does not improve our experiences. For many families, it will merely make them less accessible and, for many children, dishearteningly enviable.
As per my original 2019 request, the decision to impose this structure is one that should have been discussed with Orillians prior to it being a done deal. Hopefully, moving forward, those discussions will be had before approving another summer of commodified ‘fun’ at Moose Beach.
Erika Courvoisier
Orillia
