The newly built playground shines a light on a “forgotten area,” bringing hope and fresh perspectives to the next generation of Lincoln Park.
Hammond volunteers, city workers and neighbors joined last Friday and Saturday at Jackson Park for a “community-build” to construct a playground, an idea which originated in 2011. For City Councilmen of District 4, Lemar Marshall, the park construction fulfilled a dream which he hopes will help lend more access and higher expectations to the children.
“I think this park could change the community, bringing some pride, ownership and accountability into the neighborhood,” said Marshall. “I think it will really change the overall mindset. Kids in Lincoln Park will probably have one of the best summers of their lives.”
According to Lacy Landrum, Grants Manager for the City of Hammond, the construction process began about six months ago.
“This place was all trees and wooded forest about six months ago,” said Landrum on Saturday. “In six months, we have cleared about eight acres at this point, have another two acres we will be clearing, poured a slab, brought in some sand to make it walk able for folks and we built the playground today.”
Despite losing an hour of work due to excessive rainfall on Friday, the park was finished hours ahead of schedule at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday. Landrum attributed the speedy process to the number of volunteers who came to help. Groups such as the Kiwanis Club, city officials, Hammond Fire Department, Alpha Kappa Alpha Southeastern sorority, Beacon Light Baptist Church and the Southeastern chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People participated in the building process.
“This is a neighborhood with low-resources and very little access to anything, such as recreation or libraries, and this limits the kids,” said Marshall. “The more we can bring access to the community, the more kids will have a broader perspective and higher expectations of themselves.”
In addition to the playground, Marshall hopes to add recreational areas and build a community garden as a learning component for which both children and adults can take part.
“The return that I anticipate from investing in Lincoln Park is a better educated community, which will be able to contribute to the overall growth in the community,” said Marshall. “All of that starts with changing the mindset of the people, building a stronger community [and] bringing the community into the overall strategy. We don’t want to be left out as an area with no value.”
In discussing the need for more community involvement, Marshall compared Lincoln Park to a Third World society and described prevalent issues such as high rates of teenage pregnancies and high school dropouts.
“We want to invest in the children and give them a better start to move into a successful lifestyle,” said Marshall. “As a community we should be creating pathways for our kids. This is the starting point.”
According to Marshall, the playground will be ready for children to play on within the week. For more information on future projects in Hammond, contact Landrum at 985-277-5653.
“The kids will be like everyone else now,” said Marshall. “They don’t have to say, ‘I’m going to play in the ditch on the side of the road.’ They can now say, ‘I can walk to my community park.'”