Brave Park to open at end of September

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Strathmore’s newest recreational space, Brave Park, is expected to see completion by the end of September and will be free to use for everyone. 

“We are very excited as Brave Park, a lot of our pathways, and some of our amenities in Lakewood are now starting to come to fruition,” said Scott Silva, director of sales and marketing with Lakewood of Strathmore. “It has been several years with the new development team working hard at this, including our redesign, our amenities, (and) our financing with our regional partner, Connect First.”

Once open, Brave Park will occupy three acres of land, consisting of a playground, pickleball court, and an open programmable space for sports and other recreational activities. 

Additionally, the park will feature a monument dedicated to fallen soldiers, officers, firefighters and frontline emergency workers.

“On top of that, we are going to have a free Wi-Fi setup from our partners at Shaw. The park itself will be totally free,” said Silva. “We are going to be doing all of the landscaping in the park, so that means all brand-new sod and it is going to be irrigated from our friends over at Eagle Lake, and then we have got all of our pathways going in and around the park.”

The development of Brave Park has been privately funded throughout its construction without aid from the town or outside grant funding. 

Silva added he is extremely proud to have worked with the surrounding community and with the participating development group to be able to bring the project together as a necessity for the community.

“A lot of parks are funded through donor programs, sponsorship programs, regional grants … or even sometimes donations from the town or municipality. In this case, we received none,” he said. “We did not go after any because we wanted to ensure everybody understood that this was a prime directive from our development group and how important this directive was from us.”

Silva explained the plans for the park have been in place for over a year, and the park equipment was purchased initially in 2022. Development was delayed due to supply chain complications arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Though an exact grand opening date has not yet been set, the plan is to have the park open and usable by the community by the end of September. The space may yet be temporarily closed off following completion in order to plan for the official grand opening event.