Volunteers Needed to Help with Aug. 25 Playground Build at Chadakoin Park

Community members and city officials gather on Aug. 14 to unveil the design for the new playground at Chadakoin Park and to urge the community to volunteer some time to help build the park on Saturday, Aug. 25.

JAMESTOWN – Volunteers are needed to help build a new playground at Jamestown’s Chadakoin Park on Saturday, Aug. 25.

Volunteers from the community will join city workers and representatives from KaBOOM! on Aug. 25 to transform an empty site into a kid-designed, state-of-the-art playground.

The entire process is expected to take just six hours, as long as 300+ volunteers show up to help out.

Chadakoin Park is heavily used by the neighborhood for family events, a gospel festival, Juneteenth Festivals and other gatherings.

The new playground is based off of drawings from local children.

In 1997, a community group raised the funds and brought together volunteers to build the current playground at Chadakoin Park. With that playground structure reaching the end of its life, the community group came together again over the last few years to start raising funds to replace that structure.

Funding for the $250,000 project comes from the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation as well as local fundraising efforts by various groups on the city’s north side.

In June, kids from the surrounding community came together to draw their dream playground. The playground is based off their drawings and will provide more than 600 kids in Jamestown with a great, safe place to play.

Also, a bike path located on the west border of Chadakoin Park that’s part of the Greater Jamestown Riverwalk that opened this summer provides a link to the new playground for even more residents and visitors.

Anyone interested in helping to build the playground is asked to show up on Saturday, Aug. 25 at 8:30 a.m. Food and refreshments will be made available for all who volunteer their time.

This is the second playground to be built as part of a broader effort led by the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation’s Built to Play initiative intended to give kids in Western New York and Southeast Michigan more opportunities for free play.

Through the creation of unique playgrounds and the Play Everywhere Challenge this year, the Built to Play initiative will create more than 20 new play spaces for kids that reach thousands of kids in Western New York and Southeast Michigan.

WHEN: Saturday, August 25