Community Thanks
Dear Editor: On July 4 we celebrated the opening of the new, safe, universally inclusive Sitka Community Playground. This is a project that never would have happened without the community pitching in and working together. Ninety-five percent of the effort to fundraise and build this playground came from volunteers. We are blessed to live in such a tremendously giving community that believes in the importance of creating an amazing play place for our very young children.
I won’t list all who have been involved in the effort to make the playground a reality, it would take many pages to list all who gave time, money and food….from folks who baked pies and lasagna for fundraisers to our biggest donors, to the hundreds of folks who helped with our special events and raffles and with the community build. Our success was truly built on every contribution of food, time and money, no matter how big or little.
I can’t list everyone, but I want to state unequivocally that this playground wouldn’t have happened without a diverse, talented group of dedicated volunteers who had as a vision “to create a universally inclusive, accessible, low maintenance, safe, attractive, engaging community space for young children and families.” I want to say thank you for four years of sustained, hard-work by the volunteer Sitka Community Playground Steering Committee: Bridget Hitchcock, Kay Turner, Wendy Longtin, Kealoha Harmon, Greg George, Brie Darr, Retha Winger, Connie Oen, Grechen Stockel, Cinthia Calhoun, Bernadette Rasmussen, Doug Osborne, landscape architect Monique Anderson and Dave Nuetzel and Tiffany Justice from SAIL.
The overall success of this project was brought about by Southeast Alaska Independent Living’s willingness to help. Thank you to Executive Director Joan O’Keefe and Sitka Program Director Tiffany Justice for sponsoring the project under their non-profit umbrella.
Thanks, also, to our partner the City of Sitka for all their efforts working with the group and Assembly, past and present, for their support.
Our eight grantors, including Rasmuson Foundation and the NPS Land and Water Conservation Fund, together provided $645,000 in grant funding.
Special thanks to SEARHC and the Crossett Fund for believing in us early on when we had $763,000 to raise. They both awarded us grants to fund our design process and hire landscape architect Monique Anderson, of Anderson Land Planning, whose efforts were way above and beyond her original scope of work.
We had 200 individuals, businesses and organizations that provided monetary contributions and 40 businesses which donated in-kind, including delicious food during build week. We couldn’t have done it without AML’s generous donation of all the shipping for 64 tons of equipment and rubber tiles. Silver Bay Seafoods’ Richard Riggs sponsored the salmon weigh-in! Wow! Sitka Community Hospital employees fundraised for the fabulous rope climber! Pat O’Neill and his wife Tammy were big contributors and Pat and his brother Kelly at North 57 Land Surveying provided in-kind surveying to do the site prep and locate equipment footings.
We had 150 playground volunteers who donated their time during the strenuous but fun 11-day build “week!” Thank you so much! But the significant sweat equity with 100s of volunteer hours of their business time contributed to the project go-to three businesses Troy’s Excavation, Secon and CBC Construction! Chris Balovich, Troy Bayne and Ralph Vigilante are the big heroes of the playground effort and they cut the ribbon (barely holding back a horde of excited children). The community thanks these men and their crews who helped from the bottom of our hearts. In no uncertain terms, we couldn’t have done this without you.
Projects of this scope are daunting and complicated and take commitment and persistence. The build was physically and mentally strenuous, but the process was enormously rewarding and inspiring. It truly takes a community together to build a playground.
Everyone who lives in Sitka needs to take a moment to reflect on how lucky we are to be part of a community that will come together and work hard to do what’s right for the community and what’s right for our kids. Congratulations, Sitka! Job well done.
Lynne Brandon, Member
Sitka Community Playground Steering Committee
