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NAPLES (Florida) DAILY NEWS July 14, 2009
Immokalee kids get new playgrounds thanks to volunteers
IMMOKALEE — About 160 Immokalee children have a new, safe place to play this summer and all year round. The children who live in two affordable housing developments in Immokalee, run by Immokalee Non-Profit Housing Inc., have two new playgrounds thanks to the help of more than 60 volunteers who contributed more than 300 hours of service. Over a series of three days, individual volunteers as well as volunteer groups from across Collier County erected the playground sets at Sanders Pines and Timber Ridge. Priscilla Perez, 9 and Ricardo Loredo, 10, were among students enjoying the new blue, yellow and red playground with slides, monkey bars, wheels and a funnel at the Carl J. Kuehner Community Center at Timber Ridge. Both are students at the Timber Ridge summer camp, which is run in partnership with Redlands Christian Migrant Association. “I think that it’s a real fun playground,” Priscilla said. “I like it because I never got to be on a big playground like it before.” The kids’ favorite part of the playground was the winding slides. “It’s fun because here at Timber Ridge we didn’t have a playground,” Ricardo, 10, said. Now Ricardo and more than 200 kids from the Eden Park neighborhood, can walk to the play ground regularly from home. Sheryl Soukup, executive director of Immokalee Non-Profit Housing Inc., said seeing several volunteer groups come together was truly amazing. Soukup thanked volunteers who reduced the cost of playground installation. “The volunteers saved us thousand of dollars,” she said. Volunteers came from First Baptist Church of Naples, Immokalee Fire Department, Immokalee Non-Profit Housing, Kiwanis Club of Naples, Kiwanis Club of Naples on the Gulf, North Naples United Methodist Church, Rotary Club of Immokalee, Swamp Boys (AMI Kids/Big Cypress), Trinity-by-the-Cove Episcopal Church, Tropical Smoothie Café of Ave Maria and Unity of Naples Church. “It’s nice to help the community in areas like this and not just because they called us for an emergency,” Immokalee Fire Department acting Fire Chief Scott Birge said. Scott was one of eight volunteers from the fire department. Birge said he was glad that the fire department had an opportunity to assist another group that serves the community. A dozen resident mothers cooked traditional ethnic food for the volunteers. Parent Sandra Espinoza, who has lived in Timber Ridge for about five years, was thrilled about having a park within walking distance of her house where she can take her son, Jean Marco Espinoza, 6. Espinoza, 33, said in Spanish that the playground was especially good for residents who don’t have a vehicle to take their children to the park. She said the playground could help keep children from only watching television during summer. The overall cost for both playgrounds was $32,000. In partnership with Redlands Christian Migrant Association, which operates a summer camp at Immokalee Non-Profit Housing Inc., playground equipment was purchased for the Carl J. Kuehner Community Center at Timber Ridge with grant funds awarded by the Naples Children and Education Foundation, founders of the Naples Winter Wine Festival. Sanders Pines also got a new playground with donations from Trinity-by-the-Cove Episcopal Church and Holy Cross Lutheran Ministry. The residents of Sanders Pines and Timber Ridge, primarily Hispanic and Haitian, are low income, with 80 percent of the units set aside for farmworkers. Since 1992, children services have been offered on and off at the center.
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