Jewett Park, a recipient of the 2021 Akron Parks Challenge, will be transformed through the effort of community volunteers. A playground build will take place on September 8, 9 and 10 from 8am to 5pm with a community picnic on Saturday, September 10 from 1 to 3pm. Volunteers from the community will help with landscaping, planting, mulching, and more to improve the park.
"I think Jewett Park is going to be one of the most visibly transformed parks that we've undertaken," said Bridget Ambrisco, Executive Director of Akron Parks Collaborative. "The residents in this neighborhood have really come together to transform what once was an underutilized space into a really engaging, beautiful public park. I want to thank all of the community partners and the volunteers for making this transformation possible along with Mayor Horrigan for prioritizing city parks for Akron's residents."
The Akron Parks Challenge is a City of Akron program managed in partnership with the Akron Parks Collaborative to revitalize parks through community-led design. Over the past year, Akron Parks Collaborative has been working with L.I.N.K.S. Community and Family Services who took the lead in engaging the Middlebury neighborhood to co-design Jewett Park. The resulting plan is taking shape through capital improvements at the park this month including the playground build this week.
Many partners have come together to make the residents’ full dream for the park come to life including Summit County Public Health’s Creating Healthy Communities Program, Neighborhood Network (a program of Habitat for Humanity of Summit County), Let’s Grow Akron, and The Well CDC.
The funding for this transformation came from a variety of partners. The City invested capital funds of $100,000. An additional $150,000 came from Summit County Public Health, Summa Health’s Community Reinvestment Board and neighbors themselves through a L.I.N.K.S. organized Walk-a-thon in the park. In-kind contributions are coming from Rock Candy Holds, Let’s Grow Akron, Keep Akron Beautiful, KGK Gardening and Design and The Well CDC.
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