COLUMBUS PARK FOUNDATION

The Columbus Park Foundation:
For our Children. For our Health. For our Community. Now...and Tomorrow.

Did you know that the Columbus Park Foundation does more than just support our community's parks, provide green spaces and high quality athletic facilities? The Columbus Park Foundation plays an integral role in youth development, the fight against dangerous health conditions, and the ongoing economic development of our community. Park facilities and recreational programming are vital to our quality of life—to your quality of life and it should stay that way.

Children

Columbus' parks and recreation facilities shape our children's future, offering rogramming and activities that build healthy lifestyle habits, teamwork, and self-esteem. The scholarships we fund allow children who cannot afford registration fees to participate in ice skating, take swim lessons, or join a soccer team. Maybe you know a child who could benefit from these invaluable opportunities. With your help, we can help.

Health

Columbus' parks, facilities, and recreational programs help our community battle rising rates of obesity, heart disease and diabetes by providing residents with the facilities they need to improve or maintain their health. Nineteen miles of hiking and bike trails and 700 acres of park land are available to all, offering families and individuals the chance to get outdoors, get healthy, and have fun doing it. Maybe you or someone in your family faces health risks or wants to get in shape, maybe you just want to get outdoors and have fun. With your help, we can help.

Community

Columbus' growing network of parks and trails makes our community a desirable place to live and stimulates growth in our community. Parks and trails contribute to our quality of life, help build a strong community, draw tourism, and even attract new businesses to Columbus. Maybe you want to see business growth and tourism expand in Columbus or maybe you appreciate the community built around our ball fields and park pavilions. We need your help to make it possible.

As a community, we take pride in the quality of our parks and trails system and value the role they play in improving all our lives. But there is work to be done to keep it that way. We need to expand our facilities by building new parks and trails. We need to maintain what we have, by replanting trees, repairing benches and repaving paths. We need to build our scholarship funds so that all children, this year and next, have access to the activities and lessons offered. We need your help to make it possible.

Through scholarship funds, land acquisition, and an endowment to support conservation and maintenance in our parks, the Columbus Park Foundation is working for you. Please consider giving to support these efforts. Give to make getting healthy an option for all residents of Columbus. Give to make sports and recreation activities available to all our children. Give to make an improvement in the quality of life for all residents. Now…and tomorrow.

Recycling Program in Parks begins with Graham

Sometimes it takes someone with a different perspective to tackle a problem. Such was the case with recycling at Blackwell Park, site of the Columbus Parks & Recreation Department's Youth Soccer program. One of our soccer participants, Graham Johnson, noticed the overflowing trash cans after soccer games at the park and felt that he could make a difference.

And, boy, did he!

Graham, age 8, approached the Columbus Park Board in July with a request to place recycling bins at Blackwell Park. He also expressed his desire to educate coaches and players about 'reducing, reusing and recycling' their drink and snack containers, either by bringing a refillable water bottle from home or their own snacks instead of the individually bagged snacks and bottled drinks parents had been requested to bring by coaches for years. The Park Board wholeheartedly agreed with Graham and linked him up with the Bartholomew County Recycling Center. Graham worked with the Recycling Center and Parks & Rec to have portable recycling containers placed at the fields during games. He also visited our Youth Soccer Coach training meetings in August to encourage coaches to spread the word to players and parents about this initiative.

The end result - the recycling bins were in heavy use during our Fall Soccer season, the trash load was down and we are better environmental stewards thanks to one of the youngest environmentalists in our community. Now we need your help to provide all our park facilities with these bins. A donation of $4,000 would make this possible!

Abitibi Program Plants Trees in Parks!

Students from the First United Methodist Church's Learning Tree Preschool admire "their" tree in Mill Race Park. Money generated from paper recycling at the school's Abitibi bin paid to purchase and plant this tree to celebrate Arbor Day 2007. In 2007, the Abitibi program raised over $1,100 for the Columbus Park Foundation's "Trees to Trees" fund, an average of about $100 per month. Abitibis which benefit this fund can be found at Donner and Lincoln Parks. Please recycle your paper and help our environment.

Interested in Helping to Create a Dog Park?

Call Cindy Felsten at 376-2680 for more information or the date for the next planning meeting to create a place for dogs and people to exercise and socialize.

Give the Lasting Gift of Parks!

A donation to theColumbus Park Foundation makes a great gift.

Are you looking for the perfect gift for that person who has everything? Maybe you are looking for a unique way to recognize or memorialize a friend or loved one. The Foundation offers many different options for your donation to express itself in our parks. Whether it's a tree donated in memory of a loved one or a bench to celebrate a birthday or anniversary, all donations of amenities or money will be recognized with a card to the recipient.

Thank you! Thank you! Columbus Parks & Recreation Volunteers

We are so grateful for your help. We send out a special thanks to all who volunteered this past fall & winter at Hamilton Center, for our soccer program, our children's programs and to all those who have painted and cleaned our parks and facilities.