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New Milford, CT
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2018
Project Category: Park enhancements
Description: To create social opportunities for people of all ages, the Town of New Milford added benches and game top tables along the walkway to the Young's Field Park. Town employees installed the tables, which can host chess and checkers games. Project organizers say they hope the tables encourage intergenerational activities in the riverfront park. Today, teens from a New Milford High School after-school club use the table for regular games with players from the New Milford Senior Center.
Anchorage, AK
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023
Project Category: Park enhancements
Description: Special Olympics Alaska expanded its outdoor space to give older adults more ways to stay active and connected. The project added three turf bocce courts, ADA-compliant benches and picnic tables, shade umbrellas and a water refill station. These upgrades created a safe, welcoming environment for recreation and social engagement. Participation in bocce doubled, and one athlete noted the improvements made the courts safe for his walker and that the benches "made it feel inclusive and welcoming."
Project description was created using generative AI and then reviewed for accuracy.
East Providence, RI
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2018
Project Category: Park enhancements
Description: The City of East Providence set out to support intergenerational activities in a dense residential neighborhood. To achieve this, they made improvements to a park frequented by residents of all ages. The City installed benches, ADA-accessible picnic tables and game tables in Central Avenue Park. The improvements allow grandparents to sit and watch their grandchildren play in the park's splash pad, older adults to engage youth in a game of checkers or chess and families to enjoy a picnic together. Organizers say the project helped East Providence realize the final elements of their recently completed parks master plan.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Fort Scott, KS
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Park enhancements
Description: Fort Scott's Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes mission is to share stories of lesser-known great Americans through project-based learning. The Center created a downtown park next to its museum facilities. The new space features six narrative boards, which commemorate the contributions of individual heroes. Students in grades four through twelve researched and chose the subjects, who include scientists who discovered dinosaur bones and measured the extent of the universe, as well as a Navajo code breaker, a pioneer of modern education and others. Project organizers say the story rails will allow visitors to learn about historical figures outside the nearby museum's operating hours.
Savonburg, KS
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Park enhancements
Description: City leaders hoped to give Savonburg residents a park suitable for people of all ages. The City, in partnership with a local service club, added a quarter-mile walking trail, ADA-compliant picnic tables and benches to the park. Built next to a new children's playground, the additions allow intergenerational families to enjoy the public greenspace.
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