Help us create intentional community spaces on our grounds including, outdoor seating areas and property upgrades for our residents and over 86 children in the community.
In 2018, you all made it possible to install a beautiful, safe playground in our community! Thanks for all you do and your continued support.
The Playground
The playground is well complete! Thanks to our friends at The Community Foundation of St. Joseph County and Ronald McDonald House, our 86 children have somewhere safe to play within the gates at Cornerstone Renter Equity.
It all started with an email from Ronald McDonald House. They were doing renovations at their facility in Cincinnati, and their playground needed a new forever home.
Our community was honored and excited to accept!
Then we went to work locating the safest space (at least 6ft variances), and settled on our parking lot. If you’re thinking “That doesn’t sound safe”, just keep reading.
We have relocated two parking spots and green space to square out a large flat area that we can locate the playground. Unfortunately for the project, we also needed to relocate a telephone pole (we didn’t want kids to think it was a part of the playground – they can get creative!). It took awhile due to Duke sending support crews south to help with the hurricanes in Florida and North Carolina. They were so helpful in communicating with us and ultimately moving the pole.
We excavated the parking lot surface for the two spaces and had a community volunteer day to help level the ground. We were joined by board members, community members, and future playground players to help spread some dirt, “break ground” on the playground, and of course, share some pizza.
The next phases was the installation of the playground, hauling in rubber mulch, a mulch barrier, and surrounding the playground with a fence to separate the playground from the parking lot.
All of this has been quite the adventure, but we are thrilled to have a safe space for our children to enjoy.
If you’d like to help cover the cost of the playground, please consider making a donation today!