The Ravenna Kiwanis Club has completed the Community Action Council Youth & Family Center Playground project — and it persevered through years of pandemic-related delays to get it done.
The new playground celebrated its official opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Aug. 1. The Kiwanis Club of Ravenna and Community Action Council directors and staff joined the students for lunch and were presented with a thank-you poster from the children attending the CAC Summer Camp program. Representatives of the Kiwanis Club, the City of Ravenna, Main Street Ravenna, Ravenna Chamber of Commerce, NAACP, Community Action Council and Summer Camp participants attended the ribbon cutting.
But it was a long and winding road to get there. Multiple delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic and its resulting logistics issues complicated completion of the project, which had started in early 2019 when the Kiwanis Club began fundraising for the playground with the intention of raising $75,000. The club sold brick pavers for a walkway, solicited cash donations and applied for multiple grants to cover the cost of the playground equipment and installation.
The playground was finally completed this spring, with students able to utilize the climber and shade structure for the 2023 Summer Camp program at the CAC Youth & Family Center. Community volunteers installed the structures.
The Ravenna Kiwanis Club and Community Action Council thanked the many volunteers, individual donors and those purchasing bricks; the Battaglia Family; TS Landscaping; Print & Sign; Lonnie Love; Portage Foundation; Ravenna United Fund; Ohio District Kiwanis Foundation; and the City of Ravenna for their support.
Anyone interested in purchasing a brick for the walkway to the playground may contact the Community Action Council of Portage County at 330-297-1456 or cacportage.net.
Tom Hardesty is a Portager sports columnist. He was formerly assistant sports editor at the Record-Courier and author of the book Glimpses of Heaven.