The Playground is Coming!
UPDATE: MCP Group has partnered up with us to complete our playground installation on October 21st, 2022 as part of their MCP Day of Giving!!! We are so elated to have the generous and kind assistance of this group as we celebrate such a momentous event! MCP Group is also donating the concrete and mulch for our playground, with the help of Pine Landscape Supply and Midland Concrete.
One of the big dreams of the Eskridge Park Foundation and the residents of Eskridge is finally coming true!
We’re getting a playground!!!!!
These images provide the example of the layout out, design and color scheme of the playground that’s currently in production! We’ll have brand new swing set, a ‘whirlyQ’ spinner, 2 seat bouncer, and jungle gym with 2 slides, another spinner, clatter bridge, monkey bars, climbers and chinning/turning bars. The blank spaces are for donated pieces (below) and the existing Curva Spinner and teeter totters.
Between 2020 Match Challenge, in which the Flint Hills Bank and City of Eskridge each pledged to match donated funds, dollar for dollar, up to $15,000, in which we raised over $40,000, the generous Memorial Donations from the families of Randy Kemp, and Charles West Waugh, Sr., a sizable donation from the United Methodist Church, and of the continued support and donations from donors like you, the EPF has raised enough to bring in brand new playground equipment. We began with a top budget of roughly $75,000.
In addition to the ordered playground, we received two donated items from Rachel Logan-Hernandez and family from the previous Mission Valley preschool playground. The gaps shown in the design will be where these pieces will be placed.
Sample images of the donated pieces. We’ll be making every attempt to match the pieces to the newly ordered equipment. We’ll also be moving the current Curva Spinner (next to ice skating rink) and teeter-totter into the playground area as well.
The Landscape Structures playground pieces are currently in production with Athco LLC and slated to be delivered early to mid-August. At that time, we’ll need a team of 8-10 volunteers, with the assistance of an Athco supplied Supervisor for a 2 day installation. The equipment will be put together and installed in concrete, with a border and wood fiber mulch for surfacing.
The area preparation is already under way! You may see local, Bob Logan, of Bob’s Backhoe Service preparing the area by removing a tree, concrete picnic table and leveling the area. While this ‘work in progress’ may look less than appealing and restrict some normal use of the park, we hope you can understand as we get ready for this wonderful addition to our community! And not a moment too soon, as we’ve recently seen several years of repair on the swing set finally break completely.
In addition, the EPF has applied for a Community Service Tax Credit grant in order to raise funds for a much more permanent surfacing solution than the wood fiber mulch, which can require lots of additional work and cost to maintain. This Grant will allow our donors to receive a 70% Tax Credit return on their donations over $250 through their yearly taxes. We find out in July whether we will receive the grant! Cross your fingers!
Below you can see sample images of the Athco playground components. They look so great in real life! We absolutely can’t wait to see the kids in our neighborhood playing on them soon!!!
There aren't words that can describe our excitement at completing another step of our project and at how grateful we are to have all the support we’ve had from you over the years!! When we set out on this venture, we really had no idea what the results would be—would it succeed? Would it crash and burn immediately?
We’ve been hard at work for nearly 7 years—which feels like ages and the blink of an eye all at the same time. It can sometimes feel like we haven’t accomplished anything and other times, it is astonishing to see how far we’ve come!!
Your amazing support continues to inspire us forward! We can’t wait to see this new playground and what the future brings!
To see what projects come next, you can always view our design here.
