Reno, NV

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024

Project Category: Park enhancements

Description: Paradise Park became unsafe and underused after the pandemic, leaving nearby older adults without a welcoming space for exercise and social connection. The project built full-size bocce ball and shuffleboard courts, added benches and stools in the community garden and hosted a grand opening to showcase improvements. These upgrades revitalized the park, drawing older residents back for outdoor games and gardening. Attendees expressed excitement about forming bocce teams and using the shuffleboard court, signaling renewed community activity and plans for future programs.

Project description was created using generative AI and then reviewed for accuracy.

Siletz, OR

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2026

Project Category: Park enhancements

Description: A walking path near the Senior Center will be upgraded by adding benches, garden boxes and paving improvements. These changes will support regular walking, gardening and healthy routines for Tribal Elders.

Ferrum, VA

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2025

Project Category: Park enhancements

Description: Friends of Ferrum Park responded to the lack of safe, accessible outdoor space that had limited physical activity and social connection for older adults in this rural community. The project built the first section of an ADA-accessible walking trail, a quarter-mile crushed-gravel path with stable surfaces, space for side-by-side walking, benches for rest and accessible parking at the trailhead. Volunteers, including older adults, helped install the improvements, reinforcing community ownership. The new trail created a permanent, no-cost place to walk, meet neighbors and attend events. Early use shows older adults returning for gentle daily activity that was not possible before. One regular visitor shared that the smoother surface let him walk farther and maintain routines that matter, setting the stage for future accessibility improvements.

Project description was created using generative AI and then reviewed for accuracy.