A beloved North Vancouver frog sculpture had made giant hop from one playground to another.
The Queensbury Tree Frog sculpture and slide was a fun fixture on the playground at Queensbury Elementary from the moment it was installed in 2007. It was no ordinary school slide though.
According to the North Vancouver School District, the playground piece, initiated by the school’s parent advisory council, was carved out of a 300-year-old cedar stump that was salvaged on Haida Gwaii. Classes were given a chance to dream up what shape the raw wood should take, and a student vote was used to pick the winning design.
Artist Eric Neighbour was called in to carve the frog, with students hopping by to help out along the way. The sculpture and accompanying slide, however, were retired in 2016 due to safety concerns, with the frog settling in to a new home in the school district’s maintenance yard.
The frog was finally sprung after the school district came to an accord with the City of North Vancouver’s public arts team, the sculpture destined for a new home in the reimagined Moodyville Park.
Neighbour was brought back in to refurbish the frog over the past year, and it was plopped onto a new pad in the green space beside the expansive new Moodyville playground and pump track.
The fences for the new green space finally came down earlier this week, opening up the frog for reunions with old friends from Queenbury, as well as a host of new playmates from Moodyville Park.
