Queensbury frog finds a new home in Moodyville

A frog most familiar to North Vancouver students has resurfaced in Moodyville Park.

The Queensbury Tree Frog sculpture and slide was a playtime favourite and centrepiece at the school’s playground, but it has now found a new home in Moodyville Park this April.

It is now prominently displayed next to Moodyville Park’s pedestrian pathway – where Queensbury students can reunite with their old friend.

Current and former Queensbury Elementary students have a strong connection to the enormous amphibian sculpted out of a 300-year-old cedar stump salvaged on Haida Gwaii.

Some students even had a hand in the carving project, initiated by Queensbury’s Parent Advisory Council in 2007.

Each Queensbury class examined projections of the raw root and sketched dozens of ideas on top of the image.

A student vote selected the frog design.

Students assisted artist Eric Neighbour with the sculpting – delightfully watching the log transform into a frog over time.

Rain or shine, Queensbury kids would scramble to the top of the craggy figure under its watchful eyes on the playground.

But by the fall of 2016, the frog slide was no longer functional and needed to be retired for safety reasons.

The Queensbury community was sad to see their beloved frog go, when the hulking figure moved to the school district’s maintenance yard.

Vancouver’s arts office teamed up with the school district to reimagine a new life for the cherished carving.

Over the summer of 2019, original artist Eric Neighbour was commissioned to repair and refurbish the frog.

Now, after hibernating for four years, the frog is ready to be embraced again, but this time in Moodyville.

Note: This article first appeared on the SD 44 website.