September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 50

OPERATIONS
Meet the Donors: 2020 Parks
Build Community Project
By Paula Jacoby-Garrett

D
PHOTO COURTESY OF FREENOTES HARMONY PARK

espite the quarantine due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the slow reopening of our nation, the Orlando, Florida, Parks Build Community (PBC) Grand Avenue Park project
has continued to move forward. The city of Orlando's Families,
Parks and Recreation Department along with NRPA and donor companies
have worked hard to ensure the park renovation continues to forge ahead.

Freenotes Harmony Park is donating
dual-use musical/public art structures to
the 2020 PBC project.

To date, stakeholder meetings
have been held, design plans have
been created and donors have
stepped up to contribute products
for the park. A big milestone in the
project, the Grand Avenue Neighborhood Center groundbreaking,
took place July 16, 2020. The event
celebrated the construction of the
neighborhood center, as well as the
park revitalization. In attendance
were Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer,
Commissioner Bakari Burns, the
city of Orlando Families, Parks
and Recreation Department Director Lisa Early, along with other local officials and personnel.
We celebrate the donors and
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Parks & Recreation

their dedication to creating an
interactive and engaging park for
the Grand Avenue community.
" This is a strong community that
truly values this park. None of
this would be possible without the
PBC donors, " says Ted Mattingly, NRPA's PBC project manager.
" Their willingness to donate the
products and design the play areas
gives the local community more
options than they normally would
have. The donors are providing the
best equipment on the market to
this project, and they understand
how important the project is and
the value of giving back. "

Playgrounds
Nothing defines a park and attracts
youth more than its playgrounds,
and this park will have something
for everyone. BCI Burke Company (bciburke.com) is providing a
custom-designed playground for
children ages 5 to 12. Targeted for
the same age group, GameTime/
PlayCore (gametime.com) will
be supplying a custom challenge
course playground with integrated
shade. A separate play structure
will be furnished for young children ages 2 to 5. To top off the playground, approximately 3,000 feet

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of artificial turf will be provided by
ForeverLawn (foreverlawn.com)
from its Playground Grass Ultra
collection. This advanced product
contains antistatic and antimicrobial technology, resists ultraviolet
degradation and is manufactured
to withstand the heavy traffic of a
playground.

Fitness
Designed for accessibility and built
to last, Greenfields Outdoor Fitness (gfoutdoorfitness.com) has
generously donated a six-piece
fitness equipment set for the park.
Its equipment can be enjoyed by
people of all ages and fitness levels.
To keep the equipment cool, Shade
Systems™, Inc. (shadesystemsinc.
com) is providing a shade structure
for the fitness equipment. " Shade
Systems fabric shade designs are
engineered for easy removability in
the event of a severe storm, [while]
the CoolNet™ shade fabric protects against the sun's harmful UV
rays, " says Brad Buzard, general
manager at Shade Systems, Inc.

Fields
Outfitting the sports fields around
the country since 1922, Gared
Sports (garedsports.com) has donated fiberglass backboards with goals,
stationary bleachers, competitionsized soccer goals, lacrosse goals
and outdoor batting cages to
the Grand Avenue Park project.
" Gared is an advocate for rebuilding communities through the renovation of green spaces, such as
Grand Avenue Park, and we love
that NRPA shares our passion for
play and the importance of recreation, " says Kara Oughton, marketing manager at Gared Sports.
Known as a leader in outdoor

September 2020 - Parks & Recreation

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