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City of Bartlett (2021) Print
2021 AARP Community Challenge Grantee
Project Category
Public places
└ Park enhancements
└ Park enhancements
As part of the City of Bartlett's efforts to revitalize its downtown, City leaders hoped to bring residents a new outdoor space. In 2008, the local land bank donated a Main Street parcel to the city for a new park. However, a lapse in funding left many areas of the long-planned green space underused. This project added a small shelter house, picnic tables and children's playground equipment to the park. A team of local multigenerational volunteers completed the work.
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Vergas, MN
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Park enhancements
Description: Residents lacked a local space to honor veterans, forcing older adults to travel long distances to visit memorials. The project created a Veterans Memorial Park with two concrete circles featuring flagpoles, granite benches and engraved pillars listing veterans' names. Landscaping, an archway entrance and patriotic rock art by students added to the park's appeal. The park now serves as a permanent, ADA-compliant space, for remembrance and community events. Former critics became supporters, with many local veterans now memorialized on benches and pillars.
Project description was created using generative AI and then reviewed for accuracy.
Dexter, ME
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Park enhancements
Description: The Town of Dexter installed new benches on local streets and in parks to make them more accessible for older adults and those with mobility issues. Three parks -- Wayside, Ronco and Veterans Parks -- received the new benches. The Town also paved the entrance of Wayside Park, a popular gathering space for free weekly summer concerts. In addition, the Town offered Pop-Up Universities intended to provide residents with activities for learning, creativity and physical wellbeing, as well as social interaction. Topics include flower arranging, meditation and chair yoga.
Pine Ridge, SD
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019
Project Category: Park enhancements
Description: The Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation created an accessible, multigenerational playground at its Regenerative Community Development. Ahead of construction the organization held engagement sessions to get input from community members. Organizers wanted to ensure the playground's design was rooted in the Lakota way of life and elements of the site symbolize different teachings and traditions. For example, the facility's shape emulates the He Sapa, of Black Hills -- the heart at the center of everything. Play structures at the site represent elements of the Lakota creation story. With its grand funding, the Corporation installed a sidewalk and benches, including a semicircular bench to serve as a storytelling area. The Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation works to improve the lives of residents of the Pine Ridge Reservation, with its Regenerative Community Development focusing on providing culturally appropriate physical spaces for liberation and healing.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Coffeyville, KS
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019
Project Category: Accessibility of amenities
Description: The Coffeyville Area Community Foundation transformed a newly resurfaced sidewalk in the 9th Street neighborhood into an ADA-compliant fitness walk. As part of the Walk the Block Project, workers installed informational kiosks, new benches, distance markers at quarter mile intervals and new wheelchair ramps at crosswalks along the 2.5-mile route. The path winds through Coffeyville's revitalized historic downtown, connecting local sites, including the town's main plaza, the Midland Theater, the local community college and a community garden and orchard.
Coffeyville, KS
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Innovative home maintenance, repair and support services
Description: By repairing neglected front porches, Coffeyville's Reawakening Neighborhood Initiative set out to demonstrate that small improvements can be a catalyst for community rejuvenation. The organization's Porchology project finished four East Side homes with safety railings, step handrails and new porch swings. They also replaced rotted wood and added decorative plants and birdhouses. Project organizers held a contest to select dwellings for upgrades, with each winner located in Coffeyville's older neighborhood. The Porchology project encourages community members to envision porches as outdoor extensions of homes. Following upgrades to the four selected homes, neighbors have fixed up their own porches, improving curb appeal. In the future, the organization plans to recognize homeowners who have invested in their porches and stage porch parties with music and entertainment.
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