Sat Jul 04 2009
By Colin McEwen
Record-Courier staff writer
This upcoming fall, the dozens of children who frequent the King Kennedy Center in Ravenna Township will have a new place to play.
PASCO, a holding company in Hudson, has donated $20,000 for the completion of a new playground at the community center, located at 6660 Garfield Road.
The center serves as a meeting place for residents and children of the McElrath Neighborhood. Educational, cultural, history and tolerance workshops are offered to residents throughout the year. The center also offers a summer program called Jake's Kids to more than 100 children in the Portage County area.
Edna Knight, assistant director of the King Kennedy Center, said the existing 12-year old playground "is in bad shape."
"When they chose us, we were so happy because we have so many kids in our summer program," Knight said, adding that having a decent playground is important because many of the children are unsupervised while their parents are working. "The playground will be open all the time, even when we're closed."
Angie Spitalieri, business development manager at PASCO, said the playground is part of company's 2008 corporate charity project. The playground at the King Kennedy Center is part of a 13-year tradition for PASCO -- having built 10 playgrounds since 1995. Each year, a number of projects are presented to PASCO and managers participate in the selection process by nominating a playground project.
"We do this because we want to give back to our community and strengthen our ties," Spitalieri said. "We believe that the mark of a truly successful company includes not only its commitment to its employees, but also its civic and community involvement."
Details of the playground are unavailable because the project is still in the planning stages, but it is expected to be completed in one weekend this fall.
In addition to building the playground, volunteers from PASCO will be spending several days at the King Kennedy Center painting and putting together shelves in the center's kitchen.
"At PASCO, we place a great deal of importance on donating our time, energies, talents and financial support to help those less fortunate and to activities and events in the local communities where our employees live and work," said Spitalieri.
Knight said the children will be writing letters of appreciation and posing for pictures on the completed playground to send to PASCO.
"It's a blessing for us," she said. "They are nice people. A lot of times we talk to people and they say they have never even heard of us. We really appreciate the help."
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