By Ruby Pratka
Local Journalism Initiative
Bromont residents who want to borrow sports equipment at Grégoire Park in Adamsville can now do so through a mobile app at a self-service kiosk. Mayor Louis Villeneuve and Adamsville Councillor Jocelyne Corbeil officially opened the service on April 30 alongside representatives of the city’s recreation department and the Montérégie recreation and sports directorate and students from the nearby St-Vincent-Ferrier primary school.
People who want to borrow equipment from the Boxup kiosk will have to download an app using a QR code displayed onsite, fill out an online form and provide a piece of ID, explained Laurent Bédard, sports and recreation co-ordinator for the Ville de Bromont. They’ll then be able to open the locker containing their chosen ball, bat or pair of skates, and use the equipment for the next three hours.
The Boxup module in Grégoire Park has six lockers; Bédard said city staff will make sure the equipment on offer varies from season to season. “There will be things like baseball bats and gloves and a basketball there in the summer; in winter we want to bring in hockey helmets and skates,” he said. The module will be in Bromont for at least the next four years as part of a pilot project; it may be moved from one park to another during that time depending on demand.
“In light of the labour shortage, the city wants to use digital tools to offer equipment rental in parks where there are not necessarily staff there all day,” Bédard said. “We also want to make sure everyone has access to recreation – stereotypically, Bromont is a wealthy city, but there are families that find recreation expensive.” Annie Guillemette, a recreation advisor at the Conseil Sport Loisir (CSL) Montérégie, said studies showed that a lack of accessible equipment made immigrants and families with young children less likely to try outdoor activities. Bédard, who has a young son, said the opportunity to rent equipment will also come in handy for people who want to try a sport or let their children try a sport without buying a full set of equipment or without hauling their own equipment to the park.
“We want the project to be well known and used, so that it brings more life to the parks and is used by kids and the whole neighbourhood,” Guillemette said.
The Bromont self-service kiosk is part of a provincewide project co-ordinated by regional sports directorates, aimed at increasing access to borrowed or rented equipment. By the end of June, similar kiosks should be set up in Val-des-Sources, Danville, Weedon, Cookshire-Eaton, Potton and Ayer’s Cliff, according to Nadia Fradette, coordinator responsible for outdoor activities, parks and recreational spaces and adapted recreation at the Conseil Sport Loisir de l’Estrie. The same application allows people to rent equipment from any box in the province. Other sports equipment rental projects, not involving the app, are planned later this summer for Val-Saint-François and Windsor, and elsewhere in the Montérégie region, according to Fradette and Guillemette.