The McElderry Park neighborhood has more children than most neighborhoods in Southeast Baltimore. And, families and children need a place to play!
“There’s nothing controversial about creating a safe, vibrant space to play,” noted Myers-Edwards, director of community engagement for Banner Neighborhoods, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting efforts to enhance quality of life in southeast Baltimore and a frequent partner of the Southeast Community Development Corporation.
Myers-Edwards also serves on the Tench Tilghman School and Community Playground Transformation Working Group, which about five years ago began a sustained push on a playground project across from Tench Tilghman Elementary/Middle School.
That new playground was installed on Oct. 24, and, in a showing of community support, 500 volunteers converged on the school, located at Patterson Park Avenue and McElderry Street, to assist with the final assembly. State Delegate Cory McCray kicked off the event, and City Council President Jack Young pushed wheelbarrows full of concrete.
“The playground project is an investment in the health and well-being of the community,” said Gerad Forte, who also serves on the working group. “With the completion of phase one, children now have a safe place to play.”
“It’s been a long haul,” added Shakura Charles, a working group member and the Community School Coordinator for Tench Tilghman. She called the community build-day “exciting,” adding that “it was even more exciting the first day the kids went for recess.”
“They were genuinely excited for the playground,” Charles said. “It was a good feeling.”
Now that phase one is complete, which included installing the playground equipment, donated by KaBOOM!, trashcans and grass, the community is gearing up for phase two. Funding for that second phase, which will improve the basketball court and add bleachers, was recently awarded in an $110,000 grant from the State Department of Housing and Community Development. This funding comes from a third year of investment from the Baltimore Regional Neighborhood Initiative (BRNI) to the Southeast CDC. BRNI is a strategic investment by the State to create sustainable communities with an improved quality of life.
“It’s hard to appeal to young families without a great playground in a neighborhood” said Chris Ryer, director of the Southeast CDC.
“We were thrilled to receive the BRNI funding because it allows us to keep up the momentum for the next step of the project,” Myers-Edwards said.
Phase two also includes picnic tables, tree benches and signage, courtesy of Fresh Start, a Living Classrooms Foundation program that provides job training and academic remediation to young people referred from the court system.
“We are currently ramping back up our fundraising efforts to see what else we can include as part of phase two,” Myers-Edwards added.
Phase three of the project will add lighting, exercise equipment and a walkway that would open the space to multi-generational use.
“It’s a play space, but also a community space and a learning space,” Myers-Edwards added.
Plenty of work remains, but the working group is ready and willing. “We’ll keep selling T-shirts and fundraising,” Charles said.