JAMESTOWN – Community leaders are looking for hundreds of volunteers to help build a new playground in Chadakoin Park.
Funded by grants and a huge hot dog sale, the state-of-the-art kid-designed playground will be built Saturday, August 25 at 8:30 a.m.
“We were worried in trying to raise $100,000 for our park project, but God placed KaBOOM in the heart of Ben from Park Tech,” said City of Jamestown Councilwoman Victoria James. “Once that connection was made they hooked us up with the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. foundation.”
The playground design is based off drawings submitted by area kids and will provide more than 600 children in Jamestown with a great, safe place to play.
“We need 325 volunteers, if you can’t do it that day the project will be officially starting on Tuesday, August 21st when they will be delivering all this equipment and put everything in storage,” said James. “The 22nd, 23rd, and 24th will be preparation days: cutting wood, and getting things together.”
James said they will be building build kits to help volunteers put together the playground more efficiently.
In 1997, a community group raised funds and volunteers came together to build the current playground at Chadakoin Park.
Recently, the playground structure reached the end of its life causing community leaders to seek a new playset.
“Do you realize how many communities across the nation are going for these few playground grants,” asked City of Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi. “It’s a needle in a haystack, it’s a drop in the ocean change, but Jamestown prevailed and I’ll let the folks at KaBOOM, the foundation and the Parkitects indicate what they saw in this place and in this application.”
City officials said that the park is heavily used by the nearby neighborhood for family events, a gospel festival, Juneteenth Festivals and other gatherings.
The new playground will help continue to offer the children in the area a safe, fun place to play.
Officials also tote the new bike path located on the west border of Chadakoin Park that’s part of the Greater Jamestown Riverwalk.
This is the second playground to be built as part of a broader effort led by the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation’s Built to Play initiative intended to give kids in Western New York and Southeast Michigan more opportunities for free play.
Through the creation of unique playgrounds and the Play Everywhere Challenge this year, the Built to Play initiative will create more than 20 new playspaces for kids that reach thousands of kids.
Residents are urged to help build the play set Saturday, August 25. A schedule of the day’s events is below:
- 8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Kick-off ceremony
- 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Best viewing of playground construction
- 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Final construction phase
- 2:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Ribbon-cutting ceremony
I honestly think that this is a great idea, however I also highly suggest that we create a community splash pad similar to the one out in Dunkirk, NY.