DENTON – Jamie Beechey was taken by surprise.
The director of Caroline County Recreation and Parks was notified on Oct. 15 of a $100,606 grant from GameTime, a PlayCore company, that will fund a large playground at North County Regional Park, north of Greensboro.
Every year Gametime opens the award at the end of September for groups that have a project in the queue. Beechey went through the motions of applying once again.
“And I got the call from the sales rep saying, ‘Hey, why didn't you call me?’ I said, ‘I've been applying for this grant for years,’” Beechey said. “And he's like, ‘No, the company's really interested in this big project.”
Beechey and her staff designed the playground quickly and submitted it. The entire process took less than a month from notification of the grant to design and approval by the Caroline County Commissioners. “It took less than a month, and that never happens in government,” she said.
“So, where we would have just done one composite structure, we're going to do the composite structure, and what I'll call a ninja/par course for kids. It's really, really neat,” she said. “I'm really excited.”
The concept includes a composite play structure that can hold over 100 children at one time, a challenge ninja style course with 20 features, and a 6-bay swing set with an accessible swing.
“As a small rural county, it’s critical that we seek as many funding streams as possible that do not impact the general fund to provide the most opportunities for our residents in our parks,” Beechey said.