September 2018 - Parks & Recreation - 71

cause this active community volunteer, along
with her neighbor, Beth Sanford, are among the
park's chief catalysts. However, Webster credits
12 children, ages 8 to 12, who were attending
a Notre Dame-sponsored outreach program
at Robinson Community Learning Center, for
initially sounding the alarm about the park's
deteriorated state when they submitted a grant
proposal to renovate the park, which was approved. " The park is right across the street from
where I've lived all my life, " says Webster.
The children raised the first $6,000 in grant
funding, which got the ball rolling. When a local radio station learned what the kids were doing, it pledged to help the community get a new
basketball court. Building on that momentum,
the children began to communicate what they
envisioned for their neighborhood park.
For her part, Webster has worked tirelessly
on the neighborhood's behalf - from working
with the park department, corporate donors
and contractors on the project, to going doorto-door raising money selling bricks. " When
one business found out about the project, other businesses came onboard by donating their
time and services, " she explains. For example,
a local brick company donated all the bricks for
the columns in the park, while another company donated the fencing at cost. In addition, the
Northeast Neighborhood Revitalization Organization donated $10,000 for playground equipment and Notre Dame Federal Union gave
$5,000 toward the project. As Webster puts it,
" It was just like a dream come true! "
According to the People of Praise news blog,
Webster and Sanford have raised $220,000 in
donations to date. Webster says they are waiting
for one final phase of the project to be completed, which she hopes will be soon. She explains,
" We rebuilt everything that was in the park.
Now, it's one of South Bend's better parks. "
Webster stresses that it's really about 12 children
from the community who had a desire to make
a difference by renovating their park. " I just happened to be in the right place at the right time to
be able to help them do this, " she affirms.

that has the park department, its strategic partners and community volunteers doing groundbreaking work while keeping their constituents
up to date on the city's continual progress.
What's one lesson other agencies can glean
from South Bend's experience?
Doher says: " When it comes to people planning parks or creating any kind of regeneration
opportunity, we always talk about attracting new
people, new businesses and new economic development - but nobody talks about making
sure that we're still satisfying the people who
are deeply rooted in the community. That was
really important to South Bend, and we did
a great job making sure that we listened to the
people and businesses so that they didn't feel like
we were doing this for somebody else. That's a
critical thing, because you don't want to separate yourselves from the people who have made
your community what it is and only think about
whom you might want to attract. "
Vitisia Paynich is a California-based Freelance Writer for
Parks & Recreation magazine (vpaynich@gmail.com).

A New Day in South Bend
After 15 years and several proposed master
plans, South Bend is in the midst of a revival
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Parks & Recreation

September 2018 - Parks & Recreation

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