Money requested to rebuild city playgrounds

This fading playground in South Omaha could get rebuilt, if enough money is raised.

Saturday, city officials and community leaders unveiled a large-scale effort to renovate 15 aging city playgrounds by 2014.

Accomplishing that task is going to take a lot of money – $750,000 worth of private donations are needed to fund all the projects and open up some matching city funds. Some parks are going to have an easier time with this than others.

Led by the Omaha Parks Foundation, which was established in 2010 to help secure private money for parks projects, the initiative targets parks all over the city.

To determine which playgrounds would be prioritized for repairs, parks staff assembled a list of roughly 60 playgrounds needing the most work. The top 15 made the list. In another three years, the next 15 parks on the list would move to the top.

The effort is drawing praise and support from high-profile Omaha individuals and entities, including Omaha philanthropist Susie Buffett, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska, the Douglas County Health Department and Children’s Hospital & Medical Center.

Here’s a rundown of which playgrounds are targeted and how to donate:

Parks to be upgraded

• Yale
•  Bemis
•  Schroeder/Vogel
•  Grace Young
•  Albright
•  Park East
•  Benson
•  Hanscom
•  Cunningham Lake (west)
•  Standing Bear Lake (north)
•  Zorinsky Lake
•  Spring Lake
•  Ta Ha Zouka
•  Elmwood
•  Kingswood

How can I make a tax-deductible donation to the initiative?

Go to www.omahaparksfoundation.org to donate through the site’s secure PayPal donation feature.

Mail a check to:
Omaha Parks Foundation Inc.
Attn: Amber Miller, Executive Director
1819 Farnam St., Suite 701
Omaha, NE 68183

Miller is also available to answer questions about the initiative. She can be reached by phone at 402-444-5947 or by email at amiller@omahaparksfoundation.org.