Lois Erwin, the director of the Delta Bridge Project, said she’s hopeful that a Southern Bancorp offer to match
donations will bump up community support for a KaBOOM! playground project that must find funding by this fall.
The KaBOOM! project would, if it is funded, erect a state of the art playground in Martin Luther King, Jr. Park at the corner of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Sunflower Avenue. The playground, which will be designed by
Landscape Structures, will feature an Evos design, a patented design that is targeted at kids ages 5-12. The Evosdesigns are notable for their bright colors and odd shapes and configurations, which lack entry and exit points. The designs are meant to, according to the company website, “flex kids’ mental and physical muscles.”
Beginning at the last week of June, Southern Bancorp has agreed to pledge $3 for every $1 donated to the project.Erwin said that so far public donations have come close to $3,000, including $707 that she raised a week ago at the public announcement of the bridge project’s strategic plan. Erwin said that the money donated to the playground project will go toward that project alone and not toward a proposed stage that will be built in the same park, although the play area was chosen for its proximity to the proposed stage.