Advertisement

Rotary/City Partner to Build Community Playground

Rotary/City Partner to Build Community Playground
Advertisement
By West Kentucky Star Staff
Jul. 22, 2015 | PADUCAH, KY
By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 22, 2015 | 04:32 PM | PADUCAH, KY
Rotary Club of Paducah is partnering with the City of Paducah to build a community playground, another way to celebrate Rotary's 100 years serving Paducah and its citizens. The project will become a reality with the help of hundreds of volunteers spending 900 combined hours in one short week from start to finish.  

During an unveiling ceremony Wednesday at the Robert Cherry Civic Center, Parks Services Director Mark Thompson and Rotary Club of Paducah President John Williams explained the partnership that is leading to the creation of a Community Build Playground, part of a new fitness and health park on the land where Thomas Jefferson apartments formerly stood.

"It's been a day full of children dreaming and sharing ideas about what they'd like to see in the new playground project," said Thompson.

Williams, along with Thompson, welcomed interested Paducahans to an unveiling of Dennis Will's drawing of the proposed playground. Will, a member of the design team with Play by Design, listened to 150 local children from the Paducah Park's Summer Camps and Oscar Cross Boys and Girls Club Wednesday, as they shared their visions for the new playground. Following the time with the children, he designed and drew the proposed play area. His drawing was unveiled that evening. The children's one-of-a-kind playground is planned to be built in one week, starting June 6, 2016.

"We build children's dreams," said Will. During the unveiling presentation, he invited the children in the audience to join him in front of the group, sit on the floor and view his drawing. He led them in discussion - imagining visiting and experiencing the finished park with their parents and friends. It was interesting to see the excitement in their eyes and hear the enthusiasm in the children's voices as he visually walked them through the proposed playground.

The multi-purpose park is to be developed on the city-owned property bordered by Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, 13th Street, Madison Street, and 14th Street. The partnership, called the Purchase Area Connections for Health, includes the core agencies of the City of Paducah, United Way of Paducah-McCracken County, Baptist Health Paducah, Lourdes Hospital, the Purchase District Health Department and the Rotary Club of Paducah.

The City has received the Investing in Kentucky’s Future grant for the park in the amount of $400,000 from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. The grant requires a cash match of $200,000 which will be satisfied through a 2014 Land & Water Conservation Fund grant in the amount of $75,000, its cash match in the amount of $75,000, and donations of $25,000 each from the two hospitals. A fundraising campaign for this park will be initiated by members of the partnership to fully fund the construction of the park. At this time more than $600,000 is available to start the first phase of the park.

All members of the Play by Design team are Certified Playground Safety Inspectors (CPSI) with broad experience in the community-built field as former employees of a world-renowned playground architect. Examples of their work during that employment can be found throughout North America, as well as in Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Learn more about them online: www.pbdplaygrounds.com. Their mission is to create unique, safe, and affordable all-inclusive play structures that provide a recreational environment in which all children can grow physically, socially, and cognitively. Their creative structures are well known for their inclusion of imaginative play and sensory-stimulating activities. What makes them treasured assets in their communities is the sense of pride, ownership, and accomplishment built into them by the hands of volunteers.

ADVERTISEMENT
Advertisement


Latest McCracken County
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest McCracken County

Advertisement
ADVERTISEMENT