Friends of Stewart Park looking for community build volunteers

By Jamie Swinnerton
Tompkins Weekly

 

By the end of next month, the Tompkins County community will have its first ever accessible playground built for people of all ages and abilities, right in Stewart Park. But before this long-held dream can come true, the Friends of Stewart Park (a nonprofit created in 2011 to help revitalize the park) needs to find volunteers to help make the idea a reality. Starting Sept. 11 through 16 the new accessible playground will be all volunteer built so the recruitment started weeks ago.

Accessible playgrounds are built to be enjoyed by individuals with mobility issues. But this playground is going to be built not just for children with mobility issues, but also for parents. No one gets left out.

“We always thought that the playground was really important to do pretty quickly because it was really needed,” said Rick Manning, Friends of Stewart Park Executive Director. “That’s kind of where this idea came from, I guess, the need for a new playground.”

When completed, the project will include a preschool play area, a school-aged play area, a sand garden play area, new accessible and winterized bathrooms, a new splash pad, more accessible parking, an overlook with accessible play elements, and an addition to the Cayuga Waterfront Trail loop. But the upcoming community built is only going to be phase one of a two-phase project. Phase one includes the preschool play area, sand garden, swings, and a new cover for the existing carousel. Phase two, which will be put out to bid after the community build, will be everything else.

“It’s been evolving for quite a long time,” Manning said of the idea and plans for the playground.

The community build will require over 1,000 volunteer slots. Each day of the build will be separated into three shifts and in each shift, the build needs around 70 construction volunteers. Food will be provided throughout the day for volunteers. So, while the project could be built by 1,000 individual volunteers, it could be 500 volunteers taking two shifts over the six-day build.
“The biggest thing is the pre-school structure and the sand garden,” said Lucas Raley, who will be leading the build for Friends. “What they use is structural plastic but they treat it just like wood. You cut it, you route it, you drill holes in it, and you attach it just like you would with wood. So that’s the main project for the community build.”

The play structure was largely designed by local company Play By Design, which also designed the playground in Montgomery Park in Dryden. All of Play By Design’s projects are build as community builds. According to the company’s website, “Our process is one that unifies communities and empowers their members by bringing them together to design, organize, and construct one-of-a-kind playgrounds and park structures.” Both Manning and Raley agree community builds help get the community invested in the playground on a personal level.
“We’ve heard a lot of people come away with a sense of pride and they tend to visit more often afterword because it’s something that they built with their own hands so they get to take their friends, they’ll take other people that they know that have kids,” Raley said.

Being able to look at what your volunteer work and hours have accomplished is an element of a community build that not all other volunteer opportunities can provide.

“It gives the community more ownership,” Raley said. “It makes it feel more like it’s their park that they get to take a part in.”

For the build, Raley said they are mostly looking for volunteers 18-years-old and over, but there are a few jobs that younger volunteers can take on, such as serving the food that will be provided at the build, provide child care, or even just sign people in as they come to volunteer. There’s a job for everyone, even if building isn’t a volunteer’s strength. Anyone looking to volunteer can sign up for a job and a shift at friendsofstewartpark.org/build. The build must be finished in the six days that have already been scheduled so it’s vital that the Friends get the necessary number of volunteers to finish on time.

“That’s how Play By Design operates,” Raley said. After those six days, the company will be off to another community build somewhere else.

But Raley is hopeful about the volunteer sign-up.

“What I’ve heard is that as people come, they love it and they come back,” he said.

But it’s not just volunteers that are needed. Raley said the Friends of Stewart Park are also in need of donated tools such as drills, extension cords, hammers, levels, table saws, post hole diggers, rakes, circular saws, sawhorses, shovels, speed squares, and tape measures, among others. The tools will only be used during the build and will be given back to the owners when the build is complete. During the build, they will be kept in a tools trailer manned by a volunteer who has experience being a part of multiple community build projects. Volunteers with tools can contact Raley at lucas@friendsofstewartpark.org.