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Community Corner

Park Pride Awards $625,000 for Parks in Atlanta and DeKalb

Atlanta - December 11, 2013 – Park Pride has announced that 17 parks in the City of Atlanta and DeKalb County will receive a total of $625,000 in matching grants for park improvements. This is the largest amount Park Pride has granted to communities in a single grant cycle, exceeding last year’s total by over $75,000. To date, Park Pride has granted over $2.8 million for playgrounds, land acquisition and other capital improvements to parks.

“The grants are only part of the story,” acknowledges Park Pride’s Executive Director, Michael Halicki. “Given the requirement for matching dollars to be raised locally, the actual impact on these parks is more than double the size of the grant. Working together with local communities and government partners, we are achieving results that could never be accomplished working in isolation.”

 In 2004, Park Pride began its Grant Program, offering awards of varying levels to Friends of Park groups seeking to revitalize their community greenspaces. During the past nine years, the number of grants and the size of the awards have increased substantially. Park Pride’s Associate Director, Allison Barnett, expressed appreciation of the program’s funders, stating, “We are truly grateful to the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, The Home Depot Foundation, and the Cecil B. Day Foundation for providing the funding that allows us to support the great work of these dedicated communities to improve their local parks."

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The four parks that received the largest awards plan for extensive park improvements:

  • Little Nancy Creek Park (Atlanta, $100,000) will implement the third phase of the park’s master plan, which was created with community collaboration through Park Pride’s Visioning Program in 2008. This phase includes a pavilion, a gazebo overlooking the park’s playground and grading and drainage of the land to benefit the park’s community garden.
  • At Mountain Way Common (Atlanta, $100,000), Park Pride’s funds will transform an 11-acre plot into an urban park along PATH400. Phase 1 of the park’s visioning plan, the development of which also is being facilitated by Park Pride, includes the construction of a pedestrian foot bridge over Little Nancy Creek that will connect existing and future trails.
  • Southfork Conservancy (Atlanta, $92,250) will add interpretive and way-finding signs along the new Creekside Trail in northeast Atlanta. A field survey also will be conducted to determine how best to improve access to a connected network of public greenways.
  • Walker Park (Atlanta, $100,000) plans to use the funds to create a track around its playing field, install a fenced dog park, and update park amenities that will allow multiple groups to use the park simultaneously.

Additional grants have been awarded to: Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area (DeKalb County, $22,500), Bessie Branham Park (Atlanta, $3,000), Blue Heron Nature Preserve (Atlanta, $5,000), Constitution Lakes Nature Preserve (DeKalb County, $10,000), Delano Line Park (DeKalb County, $6,500), Esther Peachy Lefevre Park (Atlanta, $26,000), Jennie Drake Park (Atlanta, $14,000), Kittredge Park (DeKalb County, $38,000), LaVista Park (DeKalb County, $7,000), Lindsay Street Park (Atlanta, $30,000), Outdoor Activity Center (Atlanta, $28,000), Sibley Park (Atlanta, $5,000) and Springbrook Park (DeKalb County, $38,000).

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About Park Pride:

Founded in 1989, Park Pride is the only organization that works with communities all over Atlanta and DeKalb to improve their parks. The nonprofit engages communities through volunteer projects, community gardens, community-led park redesigns and by receiving grants for their parks. The organization also hosts the Annual Parks and Greenspace Conference, which will be held on Monday, March 31 2014. Park Pride is proud to recognize Cox Conserves / Cox Enterprises as its 25th Anniversary Sponsor. Learn more about Park Pride at www.parkpride.org.

 


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