China Spring Public Park
the problem:
Well we live in a small town in the heart of Texas, at least 20 minutes outside of any bigger city. Next to the elementary school we have an unused (by the schools) track and run-down baseball field, and lately I've been noticing that a lot of people go there to exercise and take there kids there when they need to get out of the house. For the past couple of weeks I've been walking and the route I take goes right by the track and the nieghborhood it's by, so I've had the chance to see it and I got to thinking that it would be a great place for a park! This would give people that are trying to exercise a more friendly and calm environment where they can just relax mentally and take a break from the day, and then it would give parents a place that's both fun and safe for thier kids to go so they won't have to drive all the way into town to go do something. Kids wouldn't have to be stuck in thier backyards, or chance riding thier bikes down the busy highway if we had a park. It would give teens a more convenient place of exercise, and it could even be a good place to do fundraisers.
vital stats:
people impacted:
0people involved:
2why it's important:
My parents were in the military and because of that, I've moved four times in my life. There has always been something to do as a kid (that was safe) in all the places I've lived except for where I live now. Like I said before, I walk right by the track and it's neighborhood, and the number of houses I've seen with kids in the front yard trying to figure out what to do for fun was surprising. I hadn't realized how many kids were in that area and for them to not have anywhere to go was kind of heartbreaking to me. It never really hit me how fortunate I was as a kid to have things to do, and now I feel that it's so important as a kid to have somewhere to go to play. It helps children develop friendships, problem solving skills, and imagination while supporting mental and physical growth. And to top it off, I would like to move back here when I have my own children so I deffinitely want my kids to have a place to go.
the plan of action:
Me and the person I'm doing this with need to figure out how to get it started. I've done a little bit of online research on my own and I know we need to contact the city council and find out what we need to do to get the idea approved. That will be our first step, then of course we will do all of the neccessary steps in order to make that happen. Then will come the development stage, where we have to come up with how we want the park to look, what we want put in it (like playgrounds, swings, etc.), what we need to change and/or improve, how it's going to be funded, and who all is going to be involved in helping us do this. We are part of a school mentor program which focuses on helping at-risk students and being rolemodels by volunteering in the community, so we could get a lot of students to help us out with the development aspect of it. These students could also help us in the next stage which (for the lack of a better term) I am going to call the "doing part". This will involve the actual putting up of the park, like planting trees, putting up the playground, developing landscape, and cleaning up the baseball field. Then I think the final step would be an opening day which we could advertise for and hopefully have a big turn out.
how you can get involved:
If there are any people that have done this before, some advice on how to get started, along with some pros and cons, and maybe even some things to expect along the way would all be great info to help. And if not maybe someone out there just feels moved by the idea and wants to help in some way, I have a feeling that some funds will be neccessary so if anyone could make a donation that would also help a great deal. (contact me on www.facebook.com/stephanie.sparks2)
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