The Windsor Essex Children's Aid Society is all smiles today.
Their new Smilezone will be providing a comfortable place for parents and children for years to come.
The Smilezone Foundation and the Windsor Spitfires put the money together to make four rooms a little less office like.
Spitfires captains Jalen Chatfield and Jeremiah Addison joined team president Bob Boughner for a ribbon cutting ceremony before the rooms were unveiled.
(Photo by AM800's Gord Bacon)
Musical instruments, games, iPads and murals have been incorporated into the Bill and Dot Muzzatti Child and Family Centre on Riverside Dr. E..
A greenroom to be used as a meeting space for the Windsor Youth Advisor Committee is another area receiving a facelift.
Committee member Jaiden Berro says the transformation is amazing.
"The transition is phenomenal, it went from office like to just booming with happiness and colour, it was crazy, I didn't expect this kind of transformation at all," he says.
The committees room, decked out with bean bag chairs and iPads will serve as a relaxation and meeting area according to Berro.
He says the Smilezone has something for everybody.
(Photo by AM800's Gord Bacon)
"Thanks to the Windsor Spitfires and the Smilezone Foundation, they did a lot of work in the rooms, so the YAC [Youth Advisory Committee] Committee has a new room, there's a music room and some visitation rooms. They're all really decked out with some cool technology and some cool murals of the Windsor Spitfires," says the the 19 year old.
Berro told AM800 News that kids and parents are sometimes under a lot of stress, so having a friendly space is important.
"A lot of kids come in and out of this building along with their families, so giving that happy feelings really important. A lot of stuff goes on in the kids lives that come in here so it's important that they feel welcome and home again," Berro says.
Boughner says Smilezone is a Spitfires legacy project for the 2017 MasterCard Memorial Cup.