East Lansing, MI – The final community design meeting, open to the general public, is scheduled for Saturday morning, at the Hannah Community Center, in East Lansing. The meeting is for all interested people (especially kids) so that their preferences can be included in the design process for the new play structure slated for completion next year. The meeting is scheduled to start at 10am and will last an hour.
The replacement project is called Playground-in-the-Park, Re-Imagined, and is a joint project of the City of East Lansing and the East Lansing Rotary Club. Head Coach, Suzy Merchant, of the MSU Women’s Basketball team is the Honorary Chairperson and is an avid supporter of the park project.
The East Lansing Rotary Club took the lead in 1995 to bring the original wooden play structure to the community, and is stepping in again to assist with fund-raising and community organizing, to deliver a new state of the art play space that will last at least 30 years.
“We wanted to see a play structure that would delight the families and children that love to come to Patriarche Park,” said East Lansing Rotary Committee Chairperson, John Saltzgaber. “The East Lansing Rotary Club is ‘all-in’ on this project and has asked the City of East Lansing to specify a new play structure that would honor the original and new play structure supporters and sponsors, be eco-friendly, meet the most current safety standards, present a physically challenging environment for children of all ages and abilities, be accessible for persons with disabilities or mobility problems … and most important -be a play place where imaginative play is encouraged.”
Sinclair Recreation is the selected vendor for this project and is facilitating the community design input sessions. In addition to the general community input meetings, Sinclair will also be presenting to groups of children in after-school programs in East Lansing schools and gathering input from the persons with disabilities community.
Funding for the park playground project is expected to be in the range of $300,000 to $500,000 depending on the final design and available funds. The City of East Lansing is pursuing a major grant opportunity and the East Lansing Rotary Club is crafting sponsorship opportunities for sponsors with naming rights to individual sponsors. The East Lansing Rotary Club has already received pledges amounting to $50,000 from individual members of the club and will be pursuing other Rotary grant opportunities for the project.