The brand new Latonia Elementary Cardinals Community Park was opened Friday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony that recognized the individuals who made the building of the park possible. Latonia Elementary physical education teacher D’Artagnan Coots and Clare Norwood of the Center for Great Neighborhoods were given plaques for their community efforts to open the playground.
Many city officials attended the ceremony including Covington Mayor Sherry Carran, City Commissioners Steve Frank, Chuck Eilerman, and Michelle Williams, Police Chief Spike Jones, and Fire Chief Dan Mathew.
Norwood and Coots/RCN
The initiative began in the spring of 2013 when Mr. Coots decided the playground that existed before was unsafe and underused. He was initially given a $3,700 grant from Fuel Up Play 60. That money was originally earmarked to repair the bridge of the playground, but once the funds were obtained, the idea grew much larger thanks to the grant-writing assistance of Ms. Norwood.
“The playground that we had was only good for kindergarten through second-grade students and we wanted to have a playground that would fit the whole community and make it a park,” Coots said.
Through those efforts, they were given a $50,000 grant from Interact for Heath, and an additional $20,000 from the city of Covington. With that grant money, a dream was realized that should serve the Latonia community for years to come.
“We had the kids draw pictures of their dream playground. We used those drawings to design the playground and it’s an inspiration to them to see it through,” said Coots.
New playground in Latonia/RCN
Once the ribbon was cut, Latonia students were allowed to play in their new digs. Based on the fun that took place there, they seemed to enthusiastically approve of the park.
“Most Covington neighborhoods have several pocket parks but there was really nothing like this in the area,” Norwood said about the playground.
Story & photos by Bryan Burke, associate editor