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Junglemania reopens for business

Children’s play facility entertaining families once again.
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The climbing maze at Junglemania is expected to be open again by spring break - Image credit: Observer file photo

Climbing and sliding has resumed.

Salmon Arm’s Junglemania, the children’s indoor play place, is once again up and running.

Co-owner Carolyn Wonacott explains it opened last Wednesday, March 22. The day before, during a full-scale clean of the facility, she had to turn away people from Kamloops and Vernon.

“So we were so glad we got it open; we’ve been so busy.”

The process involved such requirements as getting insurance and a business licence.

The former Lifetime Fitness, in the same building, is also operational under the name Shuswap Total Fitness, a new incorporated company.

“It’s going to be a bit of a long road, of course. The bank has liens on the equipment so we’re working with them to purchase the equipment… So it’s not, ‘open the doors and away we go.’”

She said she and her husband Kevin have been working long hours to get things going.

“Some people are frustated and angry and we understand that. That’s why we haven’t hired a lot of people. We feel we need to be the face people talk to before we hire employees,” she said, referring to the sudden closure of the businesses by the previous owner.

Overall, though, “the community has been so supportive, it’s been great,” she says. “Everybody is happy to be back and we’re happy to have everybody back. That’s the bottom line for us.”



Martha Wickett

About the Author: Martha Wickett

came to Salmon Arm in May of 2004 to work at the Observer. I was looking for a change from the hustle and bustle of the Lower Mainland, where I had spent more than a decade working in community newspapers.
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