Nims’ Neighborhood comes together
On June 6th the neighborhood around Nims’ school, which was closed three years ago due to budget difficulties, in order to build a new playground for the children in the community. Many community supporters were there to help and even more contributed in any way that they could. All the bottled pop and water that was present for the volunteers was donated by Todd and Tonya Franks. The hotdogs, buns, and chips were donated by Steve Warmington, and Frank Peterson donated cookies for the volunteers.
The property that the playground is being built on belongs to the city of Muskegon, and therefore Nims’ Neighborhood Association has to rent out the plot of land that they are using. However, the city of Muskegon is practically giving it away, only charging them one dollar a year.
Not all of the expenses regarding the playground were as cheap, the playground equipment itself cost approximately 24 thousand dollars. In order to pay for this the Neighborhood Association had to do quite a bit of fund raising and received two grants. The first grant was from the community foundation. Much of the money that went towards paying for the play set was made by fundraising in the community.
Nims’ neighborhood has been more than supportive of the build, and so have other facets of the community. A team from Home Depot also helped with the build, donated wood chips and a truck to move and prepare the ground in the playground. The playground equipment itself was bought from Sinclair Recreation. The neighborhood hopes that the beginnings of this playground will grow into a park for the community, hoping to add park benches and picnic tables down the road.
The new playground has been opened on June 13th with a ribbon cutting at 11am.