BayToday Picture Play Gallery: Closer to the dream

One Kids Place special spokesperson 6-year-old Charlotte Mogan plays Forman during OKP's “concrete pour" Friday.

One Kids Place (OKP) Board and staff took one step closer to realizing their dream of a new children’s treatment centre today as they laid the foundation for their new home at the corner of Highway 17 and Gormanville Road.

"This is huge, this really means that the dream and the vision that we’ve had for so long is a reality,” says One Kids Place Board Chair Marg Hughes.

“We’re trying to pull all the services for children requiring services under one roof.”

The board and staff celebrated the “concrete pour” of the official board room with Nipissing MPP Monique Smith, Mayor Victor Fedeli, and Paul Mitchell of Mitchell Architects as well as other area dignitaries.

“This is a great day for families across our region and particularly in North Bay. One Kids Place is such a valuable resource for our families who have disabled and challenged children and this today marks the beginning of the next phase,” states MPP Smith.

Hughes says although they are grateful to the province and city for their contributions to help make OKP a reality, the parents of the area’s challenged children were the driving force behind the project.

“I think if you would have spoken with parents 10 years ago, they were frustrated with knocking on six different doors calling six different numbers, the waiting lists were long because if you didn’t get the appropriate assessment you had to try again, so kids went for years without treatment cause they weren’t assessed properly,” Hughes explains.

“Here we have the one number … the one assessment that will facilitate services for kids who are requiring services it’s great it really is an amazing super thing that is going on here.”

“It’s the parents idea … it’s those parents 10 years ago who have really worked to get us to this spot, so we never ever forget the parents who worked hard to see this through,” she adds.

The treatment centre is not only a source of excitement for area families but Hughes says it is attracting the attention of professionals as well.

“Right now there are four paediatricians who are going to be moving into the centre and have their offices there, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine wants to come over and start putting some of the new doctors who will be working with kids they’re going to come to the centre, it’s even attracting new specialists.”

“North Bay has not been an easy place to get these services and all of a sudden they know that this is going to be a centre of excellence and we’re attracting professionals to come to the centre, we’re really excited about it so it’s good.”

Officials anticipate the entire centre to be completed by June 2009.

Meanwhile Campaign Co-Chairs, Dr. Joseph Madden and Scott Clark continue reaching out to the area in order to raise the final 3 million dollars needed for the project.