Are you interested in volunteering to shape the renovation of the Laurelhurst Park playground? Then Karina needs you to sign up asap! Sounds like a great project in which to put your volunteer time.
Yes that's right, Wendy Kelley and team, went through this same process adding some wonderful new equipment recently. However the City has deemed that the rest of the playground equipment at the park and other parks in the city are beyond their years and need to be replaced or they may stand the chance of being closed.
So are you in? Karina Kunins emailed us wanting to let everyone know she is spearheading this new project, and would like to get the word out asap. The first, and most important step, is for community members to pledge volunteer hours for the design phase of the new playground equipment.
If you are interested, and can commit to signing up for pledge hours (whatever you can offer) Karina needs volunteers to sign a form and pledge hours by this week-end in order to secure the grant. So time is of the essence.
"Pledging hours means that for every hour a volunteer puts in, the city will match it, either with $15, or if a volunteer can offer a specialized service (web work, etc.) the city will match the market value. Also, if an organization or retail store can offer goods, the city will match those funds as well.
And we will need pledged hours (with signatures) to get the full grant (up to $15,000) and to show community support. It is important to list these pledged hours/donations on the grant, so that we can get the maximum in matching grant dollars, " Karina says.
Karen already has one business on board, "I have already secured baked goods from Great Harvest Bread in Lake Forest Park for volunteers when they attend the meetings/workshops."
Karen says she is writing the grant application for funding through the Seattle Small and Simple Neighborhood matching grants for the design phase in renovating the park playground equipment.
Karina says that as far as she knows, "everything but Wendy's equipment is scheduled for removal. From what Wendy tells me, when the parks deems something is unsafe, then they hire out a company to remove all equipment. Despite what people see, the current playground is splintery and boards move back and forth on the little platforms."
Laurelhurst Playground was awarded $400,000 through the Pro Parks and Green Spaces Levy (Nov 2008) and a series of meetings and workshops needs to be set up to "discuss neighborhood needs/wants, picking designers/designs, and participating in community outreach and survey distribution."
Karina says that there is also still $7,000 remaining from Wendy's toddler equipment, which will be used for the design of the park.
"The parks department will implement and install new equipment in 2012, but it's up to us as a community to get ourselves organized and get our project pushed to the forefront. Laurelhurst Park is on the bottom 12 of the city's list of parks that need equipment to be replaced," Karina says.
Karina is tentatively planning 5 meetings/community workshops at this time to be held at Laurelhurst Community Center. They will be 1-2 hours each, quarterly going through next year. The first one, if the grant is approved, will most likely be in November.
Here is a tentative schedule:
1st meeting: will ask what people want for the park and decide on survey questions and distribution
2nd meeting: working with Parks staff on finding a designer
3rd meeting: deciding on designs/designer (between 3 designers)
4th meeting: tweaking of final schematic design
5th meeting?: next steps for the park (construction phase)
Also needed will be people to hand out and tally surveys, and help with community outreach (a few hours here and there).
Karina says, "there may also be a fundraising component to get additional funds for the future park... depending on what shape/scope of what neighbors want from the new park.
If you compare people/kids playing at other playgrounds in the area, Laurelhurst park is a ghostland compared to these other parks. It would be a shame not to use the city's money and match a newly renovated playground to the newly renovated community center.
It's up to the community to come together and decide on a new playground and new playground equipment, not the parks."
If you are interested in pledging volunteer hours there is a sign-up sheet at the Laurelhurst Community Center front desk. The center is only open today and will be closed this weekend. On Monday it opens at 1pm. Karina will pick up the sheet Monday afternoon. You can also send email directly to Karina to pledge hours.
Also let Karina know directly if you are interested in helping out through next year. Remember you only have to pledge a few hours.
"It is essential to have community involvement in this important first phase so that the grant will be approved and assessment of the playground can be underway," Karina says.
Kudos to Karina for undertaking this project to improve our playground for everyone. Now it's all up to us to move this along.
Karina can be reached at karinagriffith@hotmail.com.
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