Elmhurst Clean & Green

After months of planning, June 27th “BUILD DAY” arrived and Mother Nature cooperated by blessing Providence with its first summery weather of the season. Under sunny skies and intense heat, a group of 340 volunteers came together and built a playground, picnic tables, benches, and a new fence at Davis Park. In addition there were children’s activities that produced some fantastic artwork to be displayed at the playground. The park became a construction site at 7:00AM, an anthill of activity as people shoveled yards of mulch for the playground base, mixed bags and bags of concrete for the post footings. Then up went the swings, a curly slide and all sorts of fun structures. By 2:30 in the afternoon, just six and a half hours later, the playground was completed. Guest of honor Mayor Cicilline performed the ribbon-cutting ceremony alongside City Councilmen Terry Hassett and Michael Solomon, State Representative Joanne Giannini, and Robert Henrikson, CEO of MetLife, who flew in from New York for the event. The ribbon itself was a fanciful paper chain created that morning by children under the watchful eyes of the Playground Youth Activities Committee.

The Davis Park Playground Project was a collaborative effort that combined the energies of members of Elmhurst Clean & Green, Smith Hill Community Development Corporation, Providence Parks Department, as well as many residents of the neighborhood. KaBOOM! (a nationally known builder of playgrounds) managed the project and MetLife Foundation provided financial support as well as more than one hundred employee-volunteers.

Do yourself a favor. Visit Davis Park and see the transformation taking place: the new Community Garden is already blooming with vegetables, and now the new playground sits alongside it. There are additional improvements planned for the park including a lighted walking path. Stay tuned.

Davis Park is located at the corner of Chalkstone and Oakland Avenues, across from the Nathanael Greene Middle School.

We’ll be posting pictures of some of the changes in the next couple days.