KaBoom playground, county improvements to revamp south Modesto park

The play equipment that volunteers will assemble at a south Modesto park will be more than a playground.

Organizers say it will be a brain-expander, a friend-maker – and a sign that neighborhood residents are taking back a park once closed by gang and drug activity.

More than 200 volunteers are expected to join in the KaBoom playground-building project Saturday at Fairview Park. The neighborhood, south of the Tuolumne River and west of Crows Landing Road, is where the Stanislaus County district attorney enforced a court-approved gang injunction starting in 2009.

A community group called Manos Unidas, or United Hands, has worked to revitalize the park on Tuscon Avenue, raising $8,500 in matching dollars for the KaBoom effort. The residents got a break when a business owner attending their fundraising dinner in June gave them a $5,000 check.

KaBoom is a national nonprofit that brings active play to the lives of children by building playgrounds. The nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., has opened nearly 16,300 playgrounds mostly in low-income communities since 1996.

Children in those communities may not have safe parks where they can play and interact with other kids.

“Play is a powerful tool to get kids active, and it helps them grow into productive adults mentally, socially and physically,” said Lucy Nutting, a spokeswoman for KaBoom.

The Stanislaus County Police Activities League applied for the playground project on behalf of the neighborhood. Kaiser Permanente, a KaBoom sponsor in the region, agreed to invest in the Modesto playground and has signed up 100 volunteers for Saturday.

Kaiser has contributed about $500,000 to three KaBoom playgrounds in Stockton, Fresno and now Modesto, said Deb Friberg, senior vice president and area manager for Kaiser’s Central Valley region.

“We understand the relationship between our mission for overall community health and the studies that show individuals who stay physically active have an improved health status mentally and physically,” Friberg said. “It was pretty much a natural fit for us.”

Along with the playground at Fairview, volunteers will build a shaded structure or “energy station” where parents or seniors can exercise. The playground design took ideas from children’s drawings made at a special design event last month.

KaBoom provides a project manager to work with community members and advise them on building the hazard-free plastic play equipment.

The county, which owns and maintains Fairview Park, has plans for spending a $334,000 state grant on additional improvements for the park. The county will restore restrooms that were torched by arson, pave a driveway and parking spaces, and add some recreational amenities, said Jami Aggers, director of county environmental resources.

The county improvements are being scheduled for next year.

“We are very excited,” Aggers said. “There is a lot of interest in the community in taking back the park. We worked for a couple of years on getting a state grant. KaBoom is like icing on the cake.”

Manuel Rivera, coordinator for Manos Unidas, said the current park mostly consists of a picnic area, field and basketball hoop. He said that youth soccer practices and community meetings and events have gone a long way toward reclaiming the park.

About 100 people from the local neighborhood, churches, schools and other partner agencies will fill out the volunteer work force Saturday.

“We are grateful for the funding that is being devoted to the park,” Rivera said. “We think it will make a big impact. What money can’t buy is the community involvement.”

This story was originally published October 30, 2016 at 6:44 PM with the headline "KaBoom playground, county improvements to revamp south Modesto park."