Community Corner

After 5 Years, Kids Break Ground At Grandmother Park

Neighbors raised $250,000 to buy an empty lot at 1125 Dewey Ave. and turn it into a public park.

Neighborhood kids donned small yellow hard hats and picked up child-sized shovels to officially break ground this Friday on Evanston’s newest park: Grandmother Park, at 1125 Dewey Ave. 

The story of how the park came to be is practically a legend now. Five years ago, Evanston grandmothers Gay Riseborough and Mary Trujillo were out walking together in their neighborhood, lamenting over the fact that there was no good place nearby where their four-year-old grandsons could play. To get to a park suitable for toddlers, they typically had to get in their cars.

So they contacted the city, to find out whether they could get a park in their neighborhood. When officials said Evanston had no money for acquiring parkland, Riseborough and Trujillo decided they would raise the funds themselves. Over the next five years, they collected $250,000 through donations from neighbors, nonprofits and the city, enough to purchase a plot of land where a burned-out home had been demolished. 

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“I hope that we’re a model for this sort of thing—public-private—because the city needs our help,” Riseborough said Friday, presiding over the groundbreaking at the new park, which is designed specifically for toddlers.  

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Riseborough, who is a retired portrait painter, began recruiting people to help by putting up posters at a neighborhood block party. From there, she formed a group called the Grandmother Park Initiative, dedicated to turning the idea into a reality. More neighbors got involved through word of mouth, or when they found a flyer from Riseborough in their mailbox.

When she began raising money to purchase the plot of land five years ago, Riseborough said she never expected it would take so long. But trying to raise money during a recession and getting 501c3 status were both major roadblocks.

“It’s been very creative and very satisfying—it’s just that it takes too long,” she said.

Neighbor and board member Jennifer Goldstein got involved after hearing about the idea at the block party five years ago. Goldstein, who is an attorney, said she originally planned to help with just the closing on the property. 

“It ended up being a lot more than that,” said Goldstein. “You can’t say no to Gay.”

Goldstein’s children are 6 and 8 years old now, meaning that, like Riseborough’s grandchildren, they will be too old to use the equipment at Grandmother Park. But, she said, she’s happy that the park will help bring other families with young kids together—providing not just a safe place for toddlers to play but also a place for kids and families to get to know each other before elementary school.

At the groundbreaking Friday, older kids played tag, sprinting back and forth across the vacant lot, while one little girl spun in circles and another took her hard hat on and off, over and over again. 

Over the next several weeks, the park will begin to take shape, with a play structure designed for ages 2-5, a small hill, swings for toddlers, a picnic bench and a mosaic of the Grandmother Park logo.

Assistant city manager Marty Lyons said he hopes construction will be complete by Nov. 1. The Grandmother Park Initiative is donating the property to the city, which will take possession of the land after a closing next week. 

Grandmother Park is not the only park in the city built with the help of private dollars, according to Lyons. Penny Park, at Lake Street and Ashland Avenue, and Noah’s Playground for Everyone, by Lighthouse Beach, among others, were constructed thanks to private fundraising, according to Lyons. 

“There’s a history of this and we want to keep it going,” he said. 

Although ground is officially broken and the wheels are set in motion for the park to begin taking shape, Riseborough says she won’t rest until every piece of equipment is installed. She plans to walk by the lot every day to see how progress is going.

That persistence is what kept her going over five years raising money for the park, according to board member Jennifer Goldstein.

“She never gave up,” Goldstein says.

Put simply, Riseborough says: “It’s not done until it’s done.”

 

 


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