One of my favourite things about our Kids Love Peace festival at Heatherington Park this past Saturday was how many awesome teenagers were hanging out at the park and rec centre. The fantastic guys in the above photo were just sitting with us at the Ottawa Public Library Bookmobile. There were a bunch of teenagers playing basketball at the beautiful Sens Rink – which has been turned into a summer space for basketball and road hockey. Some teenagers even sat and built Lego with younger kids under the awning of the Bookmobile.
It made my heart so happy to see this because I often find that teenagers don’t always feel welcome at parks filled with younger kids and parents. The Heatherington Rec Centre staff must be doing great work to make all these teenagers feel welcome. Kudos to the great City of Ottawa rec centre staff for their amazing community building efforts.