Thanks to a $100,000 capital funds grant made possible by State Sen. David Valesky, children in Cicero have a new place to play and grow.
The town of Cicero held a dedication ceremony Sept. 23 for the new playground in Central Park, which also includes trees planted in honor of local families and community members.
“Playgrounds like this … really speak to the quality of life in the town of Cicero,” Valesky said. Valesky and town officials lauded Cicero’s Parks and Recreation Department on the development of the vivid blue and purple playground equipment, which features units for a variety of ages and abilities.
Local children joined Valesky and town officials in cutting the ribbon to the new playground.
Central Park is the home of Cicero Little League and the Cicero Falcons Pop Warner Football and Cheerleading, but for a long time, there wasn’t a place for kids to play if they weren’t on the field with a team.
Lori and Matt Munnich are frequent visitors of Central Park, as their children play baseball.
“Whenever one has a game, the other’s bored stiff, so it’s great they have somewhere safe [to play],” Lori Munnich said. “It’s creating more family fun activities, which we need because we need to spend more time with each other and less time in the hustle and bustle of life.”
“I remember when I was a little kid playing on the old playground. It was rotten wood,” recalled Zach Hill, 15. Hill is an Eagle Scout candidate and he made it his Eagle Scout project to assist in the building of the playground.
Hill and his fellow Boy Scouts of Troop 333 helped spread 80 cubic yards of mulch across the playground. Hill also built park benches with six-foot concrete slab anchors.
“I was really excited to help because I spent time enjoying myself here when I was a little kid,” Hill said.
Cicero Supervisor Jessica Zambrano called the playground “gorgeous” and “colorful.”
“I think it’s fabulous,” Zambrano said. “We have a very creative parks and recreation director [Jody Rogers]. She is always looking for opportunities to improve the town… She’s always thinking; she’s always identifying the next project.”
Rogers credits her “amazing” staff with the project’s success.
“I am thrilled, because we were able to take a non-functional tennis court that needed a lot of rehab and turned it into this,” Rogers said.
Six local families donated trees to be planted in memory of their loved ones, including Rogers’ family. These trees will one day provide shade for the playground.
“The dedication of the trees made it more special for everyone,” she added. “It’s a great legacy to be able to leave a mark — and a growing mark.”
One tree is in honor of Griffin Engle, who passed away Sept. 12 at age 7 after a battle with glioblastoma multiform, a rare type of brain cancer.
“It’s a pretty emotional thing,” Rogers said. “For seven short years, he’s impacted so many people — more than some in their lifetime probably will.”
