Coastal Voices Guest Editorial: Kidtown: The next generation

This weekend, the parks will be getting some much needed attention courtesy of the Wild Rivers Coast Leadership Class sponsored by The Ford Family Foundation in its multi-year commitment to building leadership in the region.

The class, specifically designed to include both communities (not to mention two states), has been working since last September to develop a tangible leadership building project, including planning, designing, fundraising and implementation. Due to the unique make-up of the 27-member class and the connection between the two communities, the class chose to implement the project as mirror images in both Brookings and Crescent City at their respective Kidtown parks.

Improvements will consist of rubberized pathways for access in both parks, new chips for the Crescent City park and an access ramp at the Brookings park, in addition to some smaller cosmetic upgrades.

The leadership class recognized the importance of these two gems as  stepping stones to improving community health in our region, especially given the pride of ownership that they produced when they were first built by community hands more than 10 years ago, as well as the fact that children need places for safe healthy recreation.  Kids remain a cause that everyone can wrap their arms around.

Some folks hammered, some planned or drew sketches, some cooked, some hauled, some organized, but all sweated to make these two projects stand out in our minds as concrete proof that we can come together for a common cause. They boosted our community and individual pride and proved that we can build a better world; one Kidtown at a time. 

Not long after the Crescent City Kidtown park was completed in 1998, the remaining community funds were used to start one of the first Wild Rivers Community Foundation funds, the Del Norte Area Youth Fund, which helped launch the Wild Rivers Community Foundation. This summer a grant was made from that fund to help purchase specially engineered wood chips for the Crescent City Kidtown playground improvements. 

Using the success of the original Kidtown projects as a springboard, both communities are now taking on several larger, more far-reaching projects that provide new collaborative opportunities, i.e. the Langlois and Port Orford libraries, Crescent City Harbor Reconstruction project, Brookings-Harbor  High School track rejuvenation, U.S.  Highway 199/197 improvements, Azalea Park upgrades, Elk Valley Rancheria Resort and the Brookings Community Food Share warehouse.

Most recently, the region has gained the attention of The California Endowment and will be engaged in its “Building Healthy Communities” Initiative, which will provide the opportunity for many health-related community projects over the next ten years.

We should all take a moment to recognize what we have accomplished by community led and focused projects that have emerged over the past 10-15 years using a model as simple as Kidtown and building on that success to make bigger, more complex projects doable by bringing together folks around issues of common interest to find solutions that work regionally.  This process in turn gains the attention of outside organizations and grant-makers, who tend to invest in communities who are able to resolve issues and seek common ground with community involvement.

As we begin to witness the next 10 years of our success we will begin to see those children and individuals involved in the original building of the Kidtown parks emerging as our leaders using their Kidtown experiences as an example for their children to build upon.  Talk about community development!

Karen L. Phillips is director of the Wild Rivers Community Foundation and a member of the Ford Institute Leadership Class.