AMHERST – The Meadow Park Drive Playground and Recreation Park could use a facelift. The Meadow Park Recreation Society, a volunteer community-based society that maintains and keeps up the park, received a $15,000 donation Thursday evening to give the park the renovations it deserves.
“The project is slated for the Spring of 2013 and involves the installation of new playground equipment,” said deputy warden Gerald Read. “I am proud to present a cheque for $15,000 to the Meadow Park Recreation Society for this project.”
The first phase of the renovation project was estimated to cost the donated $15,000 and will involve the purchase of the new equipment. Community volunteers will do all installations. Substructures for the new equipment are already in place.
Vice president of the society, Carolyn Hollis, said the playground means a lot to the community.
“We’ve been here for seven years,” she said. “It’s an area that the kids can come to that’s safe, a nice quiet street. Everyone in the neighbourhood kind of knows each other. It’s a place for kids to be kids.”
Hollis said the society was surprised by the donation by the municipality of Cumberland County.
“We were hoping for something and not expecting that much. It’s very generous,” she said. “It’s going, hopefully, help to do some upgrading to the park.”
Hollis said the park was put on the back burner because many of the kids who were in the community when the park was started have long grown up and left. But now, with many children coming to use the park, it was time to update it.
“There are a lot of young kids around, another young community so (the donation) is really going to help to bring it back together again.”
jturner@amherstdaily.com
