Playground At Edmundson Park To Get Makeover
Members of the Oskaloosa Kiwanis Club received a check from the Spiral Foundation to help fund a new playground at Edmundson.
Oskaloosa, Iowa – The Oskaloosa Kiwanis Club received a check this week in the amount of $40,689.00. That money is the seed money to help make a new playground at Edmundson Park.
That money came from the now dissolved Oskaloosa Community Development and Spiral for the Foundation.
The Kiwanis Club received the check this week at a potluck dinner at the Kiwanis Club Shelter at Edmundson Park.
Diane Ottosson, a member of the Kiwanis Club, said that last fall the organization was looking for a special project for the kids in the community as the group is approaching their 100th anniversary. “We wanted to mark that with something special.”
Ottosson said the group approached the City of Oskaloosa to see if there was something they could do for the wooden playground, learning along that way that “at 25 years, wood, sitting out in the Iowa weather, it [wooden playground] has deteriorated a great deal. So we could put money into it, but then a few years down the road, we’re going to be back in the same situation.”
“Instead, we will develop a new playground for the community,” Ottosson added of the plans going forward.
The new playground will be accessible to all individuals, and be ADA compliant, “and I’d love to see for all ages as well,” Ottosson added. “There are things now that you can put into playgrounds that are for adults.”
The wooden playground at Edmundson Park shortly after it was built approximately 25 years ago.
Ottosson explained they do have a playground equipment company in mind to help them design. “They are pros. They’ve worked with a lot of Kiwanis Clubs building new playgrounds, and they know it all, and they have it all.”
“Hopefully we can incorporate some of the history and culture of Oskaloosa into the new playground equipment as well,” Ottosson said of the initial thoughts on the new playground. “We’re excited about it.”
The local Kiwanis Club has $10,000 of their own money they are adding to the $40,000 they just received makes for a start in fundraising for the new equipment. “We are organizing a committee with other service groups and other community members, to get a design put together. Once we know the cost, then we’ll have our timeline and start our fundraising in earnest; with a target date of 2021, we’ll have a new playground.”
The Oskaloosa Community Development and Spiral for the Foundation can trace its roots back to 1984 and the four main goals for the Foundation.
Those were to encourage community funding and development while lowering the burden on the government, to promote social welfare, to help the poor, distressed, and underprivileged people, and to fight the deterioration of the city.
The wooden playground at Edmundston and the playground at Grant Elementary were a couple of those projects the foundation were part of.
The funds for the foundation came from money collected in the spiral fountain that was in Penn Central Mall.
While closing out the foundation, checks of varying amounts were presented to the Mahaska County Homelessness Coalition, New Hope Community, Mahaska YMCA Summer Day Camp, and the Grant School Playground.
