May 2008

Grand Rapids’ Cherry Street Neighborhood Park was in pretty good shape when IA volunteers arrived Saturday morning, May 3rd for the Park’s annual clean-up. It was obvious that the people of the area cared about their playground. The tennis court was clean and smooth, and the park looked fresh, dressed in its early spring green. Even the weather was great as the sun was shining and the day was delightfully cool. Upon first glance, it looked like our Saturday morning clean up would be a breeze.

The only thing that seemed a bit out of place was the mountain of shredded bark dwarfing the climbing structure. Standing in its shadow was a khaki-clad man whose shirt bore a City of Grand Rapids Parks logo. He enthusiastically welcomed us and introduced himself as City Parks Groundskeeper Steve Steakley. With a sweeping gesture, he motioned to the hodge podge bunch of tools he’d gathered for our morning task: three wheelbarrows, an assortment of shovels and rakes could be seen on the other side of the City of Grand Rapids Parks truck. He explained that our job was to return the park to OSHA standards by refreshing the safety surface.

In other words, we were to spread the 40 cubic yards of bark, piling more under the swings, slides and play structures, with deeper piles in the more ‘dangerous’ landing areas. They were easy to find, bare spots where the hard-packed ground held the impressions made by the feet of hundreds of running and jumping neighborhood children. These were the spots where the grass was a long ago memory and the pounded down bare earth made cement look soft. These were the spots that were to get our special attention.

Armed with shovels, wheelbarrows and rakes, we moved the mountain of bark from one corner of the park to the other. The morning wore on and families came to help. During the course of the project moms bonded, little ones played and wheelbarrow load by wheelbarrow load the bark mountain melted away. The focus in the park turned from work to play.

The volunteer project, an initiative of Integrated Architecture’s commitment to sustainability, serves the “people” part of the planet, profit, people equation. It means that kids slipping from the play structures this summer will have a softer landing. While spreading bark was a good Saturday morning IA task, it wasn’t a high priority for the City. Officials report that without our volunteer time and effort it probably wouldn’t have happened.