BY: GMS 7th Grade Class. " Playgrounds have a special place in our urban fabric, acting not only as places for children to play but also as spaces for.

PARK PROPOSAL TO RENOVATETHE GUNTER CITY PARK

BY: GMS 7th Grade Class

" Playgrounds have a special place in our urban fabric, acting not only as places for children to play but also as spaces for public gathering and

community expression. A well-designed playground offers a chance for a child - and a community - to explore, to imagine, and take

risk."

- Martha Thorne

Quote

The Gunter Park is a small area of land (2000 by 350 ft) with broken equipment and a lot of potential. Right now the park is being used as a playground area for 3rd and 4th graders. If the park could be fixed up, cleaned and renovated, the town and park would attract a lot more people.

Introduction

Existing Park

As part of a Project Based Learning experience, the

students of Gunter Middle School in Gunter, Texas, designed a survey to propose a renovation of our city park.The park is located on West Elm St.The playground is unsafe and rundown. Many families are forced to drive to other parks in surrounding cities.

Overview of the Park

Several months ago we noticed that our park was in great need of being renovated. Therefore, we constructed a survey containing questions about what the citizens of Gunter wanted either updated or added to the park. After that, we sent the survey out to the people of Gunter to see the results. All these components in this presentation represent the outcomes of that survey.

Background

Survey Results

The most common age group to take this survey was the less than 25 age group. Which I think is a good thing because they are the main group to go to the park.

Survey Results

The most wanted items on this survey was an outdoor basketball court, restrooms, childrens playground, and a walking path.

Those interviewed...

"The park should be appealing, for it is the first thing people see when they enter our small town," stated Dara Arrington, principal of Gunter Elementary School.

"To liven things up, more trees and flowers should be planted," she adds. "Also, we have all this extra space in our park which could be used for so many things!"

Another perspective...

We also interviewed Debbie Locke, a fourth grade teacher at Gunter Elementary school. Mrs. Locke informed, " Students go to the park every day for recess and they are easily bored with the little equipment there. I propose that we add an outdoor basketball court and more playground objects."

• The equipment is over 60 years old

• No one comes to the park anymore except the 3rd and 4th graders

• The bathrooms are two years old but they're gross and usually locked

• The paint needs a new coat

• The swings need to be recemented

• There is a lot of opened and unused space

Why the Park Needs to Be Renovated

Equipment that Needs Renovating

The cracked cement in the picnic area is dangerous and

a kid could trip and hurt himself/herself.

The park equipment is so old that it needs to be taken down and

new equipment added.(Thank you Eagle Scouts for painting the

merry-go-round.)

Equipment that Needs Renovating

There is a lot of unused open space all throughout the park. I think we could add something

to the open areas.

This old, run down field house could be either torn down, or just upgraded to a new and

improved concession stand/bathrooms.

Equipment that Needs Renovating

The only landscaping available at the park is a few large trees and a few shrubs.

This ditch/creek has no necessary use; therefore, we

think it should be either filled in or turned into a creek with a

nice bridge over it.

Equipment That Needs Renovating

This old tennis court is not being used for anything. We think it could be turned into a

multi-purpose court.

There is a big slab of concrete right in front of the baseball

field that could be fixed up into something more useful... like a

parking lot.

• We would like to add a multi-purpose court instead of just a tennis court.

• The old benches need to be sanded because most children get splinters from them. (Thank you Eagle scouts for the new benches.)

• Existing restrooms need to be open more often and cleaned.

• Turn the old field house into a concession stand/ bathroom.

Our Proposed Solution

This is our proposed design of the park:

New Equipment We Want

This playground is suitable for all ages and would be a lot more enjoyable for kids.

Instead of having a few picnic tables on top of cracked concrete, we could build something more like

this that provides shade and is a fun place to gather for a nice family

picnic.

New Equipment We Want

In those two open spaces of land we could maybe add a soccer field and a sand volleyball court.

This picture shows exactly what we would like the old field

house turned into: a concession stand with connecting bathrooms.

New Equipment We Want

Don't you think that adding some flowers and bushes like

these throughout the park would be more pleasant?

As in this picture, I think that our park creek should

be filled in and have a bridge added over it.

New Equipment We Want

I think that we could expand that empty slab of concrete to build a parking

lot.

This court could serve as a basketball court, volleyball

court, and a practice soccer field.

We understand that there probably isn't going to be enough money to do all of these upgrades within the next few months. We are, therefore, proposing the idea of spreading all of this out in the next 5 years.

Money Issues

If we didn't have enough money, we could do

fundraising, apply for grants, or solicit donations.

Our Solution

Fundraising

Hot dog eating contest

<<Dog walk-a-thon

5k Marathon>>>

Hotdog Eating Contest

A hotdog eating contest is a contest where the first person to finish all of their hotdogs wins a prize. All ages are welcome to join this contest. It is $20.99 if you are under the age of 20 but if you are over 20 it is $25.00. If Gunter were to have a hotdog eating contest, we could raise over $500.00 or even more.

Dog-walk-a-thonA walk-a-thon, walking marathon or sponsored walk is a type of community or school fundraiser in which participants raise money by collecting donations or pledges for walking a predetermined distance or course. They are similar in format to other physical activity based fundraising events such as marathons and cycling races, but are usually non-competitive and lower intensity. The low intensity model is ideal for mobilizing broad-based community support, and as a result Walkathons usually target participants from a wide range of ages and economic backgrounds.

3 on 3 BasketballThe 3 on 3 basketball games can also raise money for the city park. You can bring your own team of 3 and the gunter coaches will put you in a rank of your skill levels. It is $20 to enter and you could win $50 in cash! you could enter from ages 15-35 and you can have a maximum of 5 players and rotate them in.

5k or (3.1 miles)The 5000 metres (approximately 3.1 mi or 16,404 ft) is a popular running distance also known as 5 km or 5K ("five-K"). It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championship Athletics. "5000 metres" refers to racing on a track and "5K" usually refers to a roadrace or cross country event. While mainly run as an outdoor event, the 5000 m is sometimes run on an indoor track.

Chili Cook OffA cook-off is a cooking competition where the contestants each prepare dishes for judging either by a select group of judges or by the general public. Cook-offs are very popular with a variety of very similar dishes and serves as a way to decide which recipe is the best for that particular dish.If Gunter has a Chili Cook off then we could raise over $250,00 to go towards the park equipment. To enter the Chili Contest the ages vary the prices. 20-older $30, 20-under $25.This alone could be enough to replace the swing, merry go round, etc..

GrantsAt www.letsplay.com we can apply for a grant up to $15,000 if built using the KaBOOM! community-build model. This model is very nice and suitable for our park. This would help us greatly with the expenses of our park.

In Motion Outdoors Playground Grant

The In Motion Outdoors Playground Grant gives in -kind product donations to fund playground

projects. Applications would be submitted at LittleTikesCommercial.com/playground-funding-

grant

Grants

DoughBuilders Fundraising & Grant

Profit as much as 50% on a cookie dough fundraising program, plus a GRANT for

playgrounds. Doughbuilders.com could be contacted.

More Grants...

In the end, all we want is to have a more inviting and

enjoyable park, and we think that by using some of these

ideas we can make that happen!