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Amherst, VA

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024

Project Category: Park enhancements

Description: The county will create a bocce ball court in response to requests from older adult residents, providing them with a low-cost, healthy recreation option. The new court will be located at a community center.

Asheville, NC

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019

Project Category: Park enhancements

Description: After Buncombe County Recreation Services installed new instruments in Charles D. Owen Park -- including lily pad cymbals, a tenor tree, tuned drums and flower gongs -- park attendance increased nearly 20 percent in one year. The instruments, created by the Freenotes Harmony Park company, don't include sharps or flats and are designed to be played using arm and hand muscles rather than fingers. That way, people of all musical abilities can play them without training. More than 400 people also participated in three workshops focused on designing artistic tiles for the new space with themes of compassion, peace and diversity. The creation of the Real Possibilities musical garden sparked new projects, including the park's first TRACK Trail (self-guided, family-friendly outdoor adventures with prizes), enhanced sports courts and bird nest boxes that allow researchers to study tree swallows.

Hattiesburg, MS

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022

Project Category: Park enhancements

Description: This project made improvements to basketball court at a public school and park. It also added four age-friendly benches at a walking track, as well as two murals.

Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects

Missoula, MT

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020

Project Category: Roadway/sidewalks/crosswalk improvement

Description: Missoula's Transportation Planning hoped to improve safety at a busy intersection in the Riverfront neighborhood, while also giving people a space to gather. First, project organizers asked residents and local business owners for their ideas to improve the streetscape. Ahead of activating the intersection, the city's public works department made upgrades to pavement and water mains. Based on community feedback, Missoula Transportation Planning then created bulb-outs, which extend the curb into the intersection, giving pedestrians extra space, making them more visible to drivers and shortening the distance needed to cross the road. Curb ramps make the crosswalks accessible. To create a seating area, they also created two parklets -- mini-parks that fit in the footprint of on-street parking spaces. The parklets featured art, a space to park bikes and decorative foliage.

Missoula, MT

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024

Project Category: Walk Audits

Description: A series of walk audits at regional farmers markets will identify potential sidewalk, crosswalk and accessibility improvements. The Coalition will recruit older adults to conduct the audits and compensate them for their time.

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