Church group brings playground back to life
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As their voices and laughter carried throughout the playground, adults made a quick assessment of what had happened there and reflected upon how the children came to be at that place.
Pastor Mike Gay of Crossroads Fellowship Church ran through a list of what was accomplished easily and with familiarity: A swing set was repaired and strengthened. A seesaw was repaired because it did not have handles and the other was missing completely. Volunteers rebuilt the footbridge across a gully in the middle of the grassy area and at the jungle gym area, a roof was replaced and the wood was stained. A basketball goal was installed.
A little less than a month ago, the grass was so grown up, there was no hope of children playing there.
Darren Hillis, a resident of the area for about five years who coordinated repairs with the church and the neighborhood, said the area has not been used as a playground during his time there, to his memory.
“It was grown up to the point you couldn’t see there were picnic benches under this pavilion,” Gay said, adding residents were anxious to do something about it.
With some coordination, the developer of the subdivision agreed to provide materials. Residents and church members provided the labor last weekend and are planning a community celebration there tomorrow.
For the skeptic, Gay said there is no catch as it relates to the church’s involvement.
“We came into this area and did surveys and asked how we as a church could be valuable to them, and this park was brought up many times, so for integrity’s sake, we wanted to respond to that survey and repair this park for them,” he said.
Other reasons, he indicated, are the little things get missed when bigger things like sniper shootings or domestic terrorist attacks are occurring in the world.
“We want people to understand that God cares about children having a park to play in, too and that God cares about everyday life and things we face in everyday life. And so we hope repairing and updating this park will show people that.”
About 15 adults rolled up their sleeves last weekend through Hillis’ and others efforts.
Hillis said people living in the 115-house subdivision are beginning to notice, among them, a grandmother.
“She’s got two small grandchildren and said she’s been enjoying coming down here since it got cleaned up,” Hillis said, adding for him, the project was also spiritually based.
Hillis said he expects the biggest maintenance issue will be mowing, which he also participated in along with resident Eddie Fults. Additionally, a group was there a few weeks ago to take care of weeds and other clean-up efforts. Hillis said he envisions a long-term benefit of providing a sense of community to their children.
“I think the long term benefit is for them to be able to get together as a community and just have fun. It’s a place that they can come to that I think it’s safe for them to play and it’s close to home and it’s just a nice place for them to be,” he added.