See More Projects Like This One

Gautier, MS

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024

Project Category: Park enhancements

Description: This project will install outdoor fitness stations along a walking track popular with older adults. Several stations will feature ADA-complaint designs.

West Monroe, LA

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024

Project Category: Park enhancements

Description: The city will add accessible walking paths, benches and water features to a local botanical garden, making the space welcoming to visitors of all ages.

Foley, AL

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021

Project Category: Park enhancements

Description: Organizers thought Foley Park -- a small green space next to a middle school -- had untapped potential. Foley Main Street and the City of Foley transformed the park into a local music destination. Redubbing the space Freenotes Harmony Park, Foley Main Street installed a collection of outdoor musical instruments, including contrabass chimes, an orange swirl, a yellow imbraimba and rainbow drums. The instruments are designed to be easy to play -- similar to a xylophone, the imbarimba has 22 fiberglass keys of varying lengths, which sit atop metal chimes. Visitors can play the instrument by striking the keys with the attached mallets. The instruments weren't the only upgrade to the pocket park. The City also assed an amphitheater with lights, power outlets and an ADA-compliant stage. Since their installation, the instruments have created an outdoor classroom for middle school students on weekdays, as well as a gathering place for residents of all ages on evenings and weekends.

Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects

Camp Verde, AZ

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021

Project Category: Accessibility of amenities

Description: After a resident complained to the mayor that she couldn't walk the 1.6-mile trail circling Camp Verde's new multi-use park and outdoor sports complex without a spot to rest, project organizers set out to add amenities to make the path more accessible. The Camp Verde Parks and Recreation Department added eight benches along the trail, placing each bench in areas popular with older adults. The local Old Guys volunteer group, which brings together retired residents with construction expertise to do community improvement projects, did the installation. As construction continues on the sports complex, project organizers say they will look for additional places to offer seating, ensuring the facilities can welcome people of all ages and abilities.

Cottonwood, AZ

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: This project will teach people experiencing homelessness and food insecurity how to grow their own food, and provide them with a garden space that can increase self-sufficiency and improve diets with fresh produce.

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