In Lacoochee, instant playground
It has taken years to come, but it will be put up in a day, with help from Home Depot and a charity called KaBOOM!
By CHASE SQUIRES
Published November 10, 2004
LACOOCHEE - Community leaders and corporate backers plan to do in less than eight hours what years of toil, dreams and fundraising never could seem to manage here.
Working with the Home Depot and a national charity called KaBOOM!, the Boys & Girls Club of Tampa Bay is preparing to break ground Dec. 2 on a deluxe playground at the Lacoochee Boys & Girls Club in Pasco County Housing Authority's Cypress Farms development.
Tampa Boys & Girls Club president Roy Opfer said board members hope to finalize plans this week to name the park in honor of Lacoochee native and community booster Lewis Abraham, who died last week.
Opfer said an army of volunteers plans not only to start, but also finish the playground on the same day.
"What I love about this is that it's 71/2 hours, and you got it. That's why it's called KaBOOM!" Opfer said Tuesday. "In so many cases, neighborhoods like this have been promised things for so long, and nothing happens."
Lacoochee has been stuck in that rut for a long time, struggling for years with fundraising to keep up with costs.
A dream of building a community swimming pool evaporated in 2000 when Pasco County officials said they were out of the pool business. A proposed water park never materialized. Then the Boys & Girls Club fought a cash crunch in 2002, canceling programs.
The Pasco County club joined with Tampa for financial stability in May of this year. Opfer said it wasn't long before the new, combined organization identified Lacoochee as an area of need.
"They have brought a lot more clout to the area," said Wilton Simpson, a Pasco County farmer and longtime backer of the club. "We are not just Lacoochee, we are now part of a much larger organization."
KaBOOM! vice president of program management Kate Becker said her organization works with large corporate donors. When the donor company, in this case Home Depot, is giving money and volunteers, KaBOOM! helps coordinate a project in the target communities.
Home Depot is a newcomer to east Pasco, and Becker said the company and its employees were eager to serve the Tampa Bay area.
Opfer said that when he got the call from KaBOOM! this past summer, he highlighted two areas of need, Lacoochee was one, and a struggling area of Tampa was another.
A key element of the Pasco project, Opfer said, is that parents and children in Lacoochee helped design the park. Home Depot provided most of the money, but local donors came up with $10,000 to show their commitment, and the children have been involved from the start.
"It's great because it's their playground, they designed it," Opfer said. "They have a great sense of ownership."
"At the end of the day, the volunteers and community members, frequently they cry. They didn't think in the end it was going to happen," Becker said. "Those are the communities that we work in, they just didn't think that it would happen. This is going to be a place they can drive by and be a symbol of what they can do."
Simpson said it will also be a symbol to the people of Lacoochee that they aren't forgotten.
"The residents will see this as confirmation that things really are happening," he said. "We're going to see a lot of good things in Lacoochee."
Isa Blanford, who has worked for the Housing Authority and volunteered in the community, said children and parents have been excited about the park.
"This is truly wonderful," she said.
KaBOOM! started in 1995 and has raised more than $10-million nationwide and has built or overhauled more than 1,000 playgrounds, says the organization's Web site.
Anyone interested in donating to the park or volunteering Dec. 2 may call Opfer at (813) 875-5771, ext. 3012.