On Nov. 4, the Blairmore Lions received a matching grant of $20,000 from the provincial Community Facility Enhancement Program to buy playground equipment for Lions Park.

The money will be added to the funds raised to commemorate homicide victims Hailey Dunbar-Blanchette and her father Terry Blanchette who were killed last September.

In the weeks after the murders, about $20,000 was raised through a number of fundraising efforts and entrusted to the Blairmore Lions.

One such effort called The Ride for Terry and Hailey saw hundreds of bikers gather in Longview to make a 130-kilometre ride down the Cowboy Trail to the Pass. It raised over $9,000.

On Sept. 15, 2015, Lions Park was a scene of misery when police told dozens who had gathered to pray for Hailey that her remains had been found in a wooded area north of Blairmore.

An Amber Alert spanning B.C., Saskatchewan and the U.S. state of Montana had been issued for the missing two-year-old Blairmore girl a few days earlier.

Next year the park might be a much happier place when the playground equipment is installed.

Mona Robutka, the Lions’ grants chairman, said her organization is in the process of deciding what kind of equipment to buy and that it would likely be installed in the spring.