Region’s first public concrete ping-pong table
is popular feature at Tremaine Park
is popular feature at Tremaine Park
THEY LOVE THEIR HOOD
Scott and Brooke Robinson came up with the idea to put a concrete ping-pong table in their local park for everyone to enjoy. The first of its kind in the Region of Waterloo, the table was installed September 2 at Tremaine Park in Kitchener’s east end. The table was developed, built, installed and donated by Scott Robinson’s family company, Unit Precast in Breslau. Photo by Carrie Debrone
Scott and Brooke Robinson came up with the idea to put a concrete ping-pong table in their local park for everyone to enjoy. The first of its kind in the Region of Waterloo, the table was installed September 2 at Tremaine Park in Kitchener’s east end. The table was developed, built, installed and donated by Scott Robinson’s family company, Unit Precast in Breslau. Photo by Carrie Debrone
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By Carrie DebroneKitchener Citizen
September 13, 2016
Want to build community? Just put a ping-pong table in your local park.
A new custom-built concrete ping-pong table, installed September 2, has become one of the most well used recreational features at Tremaine Park, located in Kitchener east.
The table, which weighs about 815 kilograms (1,800 pounds), was the idea of Tremaine Park neighbours Scott and Brooke Robinson.
Scott’s family owns Unit Precast in Breslau, which produces a variety of concrete products. While doing some research on a new line of concrete his company was starting to work with, Scott came across a photo of a concrete ping-pong table.
That got him thinking.
He showed the picture to his wife, Brooke, and they both agreed a ping-pong table would be a great addition to their local park.
They immediately started working with their ward councillor, Dave Schnider, who sees the project as an outstanding example of how citizen initiated community projects can make a big difference in making Kitchener a great place to live.
“It’s a perfect example of what our Neighbourhood Strategy wants to accomplish. Take a citizen’s idea and work to make it happen. A citizen led, city supported idea,” said Dave Schnider.
“I brought the idea forward to Michael May, our Deputy CAO, Community Services Department, who fully embraced the idea. A few days later at a neighbourhood strategy meeting at Rockway Centre, we all sat down with members of our operations team to discuss what it would take to make it happen,” he said.
Scott worked with city staff to design a table that meets all CSA safety standards, including rounded corners and edges, and a permanent metal net. The net, with the words #lovemyhood, cut into it, had to be constructed with letters the right size so that children’s fingers could not get caught in them.
Built of glass fiber reinforced concrete, the table is able to withstand harsh Canadian winter weather and is firmly anchored to buried concrete footings.
It also has an anti-graffiti coating. The special concrete allows for a very hard and smooth table surface that plays a lot like a regular ping-pong table.
Worth about $3,000, Unit Precast donated the table to the park. Scott said it took construction of several prototypes to come up with the final design.
“The first one we built didn’t turn out the way we wanted, and the second one wasn’t accepting the green stain we put on the table top, so it took a bit of work to get all that figured out. It was definitely a learning and research project for us,” he said.
“I would say it took 50 to 100 hours to get it right. Our staff put a lot of sweat and tears into it,” he said.
Balls and paddles are currently stored under the table, and Scott and Brooke are keeping a close eye on maintaining a good supply.
“Not everyone knows about the ping-pong table yet, but maybe next year when most people know it’s here to use, we will let the players bring their own paddles and balls. For now, we want everyone to have a chance to try it out, so we are supplying them,” Brooke said.
Scott and Brooke and their three children go to their local park often – a place they both love and cherish. It is the centre of their residential community, acting as a gathering spot for the resident’s annual Easter Egg Hunt, fall Charity BBQ, Canada Day Party and a number of other formal and informal community events. Another neighbour, Julie Nicholls, got the first Little Library in a public park installed last summer.
“Just in the last five days, since the ping-pong table’s been here, we’ve met lots of people in the neighbourhood that I didn’t recognize before,” Brooke said, adding that the table has been constantly busy since the installation.
“It fills a void in the park especially for the kids who are maybe too old for the playground equipment and yet not old enough to play with the older teenagers who regularly shoot hoops at the adjacent basketball court,” she said.
“We’ve had all age groups using the table. I’ve seen parents playing their kids, people in their 70s playing and grandparents playing with their grandchildren. Everyone seems to love it,” she said.
“I would love to see more ping-pong tables in neighbourhood parks. This was like a pilot project. We know it can be done and we know how to get it done. This has made Tremaine Park an even better place for neighbours, families and friends to gather, and increased an already high level of neighbourhood pride,” Schnider said.
