The 2021 KidSport Playhouse is officially complete and as of June 11, it’s been on display at the A&W in Martensville.
The playhouse is the grand prize in a raffle to raise funds for the Warman, Martensville and Area KidSport Chapter and there were many hurdles to finish this project because of the pandemic.
After taking on the task to complete the project earlier this year, Martensville resident and carpenter Marty Goertzen is happy with the final product, and he believes people will be excited to buy tickets in hopes of winning it.
“I’ve had people that I work for, they want to come and have a look at it … they could hardly wait until it was done, and they’re excited to buy tickets,” he said.
In past years, students from the respective Martensville High and Warman High industrial arts classes built the playhouse for this fundraiser, which was initiated by Martensville A&W owner Brian Buffin back in 2016 .
Students from Martensville High started building this specific playhouse in 2020, however, COVID-19 restrictions prevented the class from finishing the project and that is where Goertzen stepped in. Goertzen kept the original old-west general store design started by the students, but he also added some features of his own, including a overhang roof above the porch.
“I wasn’t going to do that overhang on that front porch, but I thought that would be quite an addition,” he said.
Goertzen thought he would spend up to 150 hours on the project, but it ended up taking him approximately 250 hours to complete the playhouse because of the extra features he added to the initial design.
He was hoping to have it completed by mid-May but he wanted to add intricate details to really make it look like an authentic old-west general store, which included stained hand-crafted doors in the front and back of the building. The window frames in front of the playhouse were also handcrafted.
“For the windows, I had to plane everything down to an inch and a quarter and the jambs had to be the right size, and to make it look balanced, it took a lot of work,” said Goertzen.
Goertzen provided the labour free of charge and Realtor Richard Reimer of Martensville covered all costs for the project including materials, which were supplied by Martensville Building & Home Supply .
Buffin, has been spearheading this fundraiser for KidSport since its first year and he is really thankful for Goertzen stepping in.
“Marty Goertzen saved the day for us, he agreed to finish it at no cost and he did the most beautiful job on it, and it’s so exciting to see it here (at A&W),” he said.
Even though the playhouse has just been put out on display, tickets for it have been available since mid-May. Along with tickets being sold at business in Martensville and Warman, including A&W, they are also available to purchase online at https://warman-kidsport.myshopify.com/.
“If we can, we will definitely be selling them at events, once events start to happen,” said Coralie Bueckert, representative for the Warman, Martensville and Area KidSport Chapter.
Now that the playhouse is on the A&W lot for people to see, Buffin expects ticket sales to really pick up.
“There will be so many people coming on the lot, once they see this, it’s gorgeous,” he said.
As part of the raffle fundraiser, people also have the opportunity to win a $500 Cabella’s gift card and a gift basket worth $150 .
The draw for the raffle will be made on September 18.