As the sun starts peeking out from behind those tired winter clouds and spring makes its first shy appearance, we realize: it’s getting prettier out there. Crocuses are popping up all over and those tulip stems are poised and ready. The world is starting to warm up again and the days are officially a little bit longer. After months of being confined to the indoors, we put on our mud boots and venture into the backyard and out into the woods. But the place my kids ask me to take them the most often is THE PLAYGROUND. Here in this sweet little town we are lucky enough to have an epic playground minutes from our house. So now I think it’s time to highlight one of our most essential locations: Friendship Park.
Friendship Park was lovingly built by the community of Ligonier over twenty years ago. Three years ago, a local mother saw that it needed to be repaired in several places. It also was mulch-carpeted and not very wheelchair accessible. She decided to be proactive and she contacted those who previously helped with the original build, as well as the company originally used. This company encourages the building of playgrounds ‘For the Community, By the Community’, so the community came together once again. This was the birth of the ‘Friendship Park Rebuild.’ *Disclaimer: names of those involved with the project were intentionally left out, as there are too many willing and able hands to list here. Please refer to factual accounts written about the Friendship Park Rebuild by real live journalists in the Ligonier Echo’s archives.*
What followed was a whirlwind of planning, collaborating, fundraising and sweat and tears. A core group of dedicated community members lent their talents and met monthly (and bi-monthly as the date of ‘The Build’ loomed closer.) This group was made up of everyone from local business owners and teachers to retirees and mothers of young children. There were teams that considered the design and layout of the structures, teams that organized the procurement of every last tool down to the nuts and bolts, and teams that considered the accessibility of the layout and features. There were people who planned for housing and entertaining the kids of the volunteers while they were swinging hammers at the build site. The generous donations to all the carefully planned fundraising events, as well as several grants that the project was lucky to be awarded, made this extensive renovation possible.
After two (plus) years of planning and execution, the renovation of the park was completed in 2017 thanks to all those dedicated community members who donated their time and efforts to the project. And now we have a beautiful new park for our children to enjoy.
In my humble mother-of-small-children opinion, ours is the best park around. It features rubber flooring and a couple special swings (which makes it so great for wheelchair accessibility), several climbing walls, an ‘Omni-spinner’ that the kids love to take turns spinning all their friends in, and six slides (the yellow tube slide is my kids’ favorite). There’s a little kids’ area with mushroom steppers, bucket swings and two ride-on bouncers. There’s even a police car, a boat and a fire truck. The design team kept several artistic touches from the first playground, as well as incorporating some new meaningful ones, like a life-sized painting of our town’s beloved K9 dog and a nod to Fort Ligonier. All of this is enclosed within a fence that only has one way in and out, which is perfect for those who have kiddos that cannot be contained! The park has great visibility to all areas so that it's easy to keep an eye on kids while you chat up all of your parent and grandparent friends.
Friendship Park adds so much value to the town of Ligonier. It's a community meeting-place for both children and adults. It's a place where everyone can picnic, laugh, play and enjoy those sunny, blue-sky days together. I personally believe that a town is made complete by a well-equipped, well-accessible playground. I'm so grateful my kids have a place like Friendship Park to make memories.
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