The People and Events that Led to the Creation of the Park Discovery
Service Learning Project
For Professor Earl Mulderink
History 2700
By Ian Berg
Fall 2001
The service learning project which I researched and prepared for this class “The Making of a Discovery: The People and Events that Led to the Creation of the Park Discovery”, was a culmination of research and interviews with people whom were among the main forces behind the organization and creation of the park. The intended audience for this project are people in the community that may be interested, as I was, in how the project that became the park came to pass, as well as any group that may be interested in following in the footsteps of these incredible people. There are currently several people; who wish to remain anonymous until they decide one way or the other about their dedication level in such an endeavor, who are looking into creating a community based park like the Park Discovery in the mouth of Cedar Canyon. This has become an interesting development for me because of my discovery that the initial site chosen for the Park Discovery by the city was to be in the mouth of the canyon, attached to the east side of Canyon Park. The limitations of space available, along with the committee for the park and its determination to not be limited by size constraints due to their vision for the educational/scientific aspects of the park made the canyon site unsuitable for the Park Discovery. However, as indicated by the group interested in building a park there in the future, their interest is to expand public park space to make Cedar City more attractive to the people, in particularly the children who live here. Much of the work done in my project was interview and compilation of historical documents, documents that were held by different members of the Park Discovery committees. Each interview yielded a large assortment of information, with some of the details being common to almost all of the interviews. Sorting through the interview material to find the information that I believe best serves this project and report while still giving as much of the whole picture as possible was much more of a time consuming task than I anticipated. Beyond the interviews, I sorted through and chose a select few media options to give the reviewer of my project a visual sense of what was accomplished by this dedicated community.
Linda Justus is the founder of Park Discovery. Her family moved to Cedar City in the summer of 1998 and being huge fans of the parks in their former home in Ohio, were disappointed by the lack in number and quality of parks in their new community. After having another child, Linda formed a playgroup with other mothers to ease their children into socialization. Many of the other mothers were also very disappointed in Cedar City’s lack of parks. In April, 2000, Linda came to the playgroup with the idea of a community built park in mind. After discussing the idea, another mother in the playgroup; Wendy Spradley, came forward and volunteered to help Linda build a park. Linda’s vision of the park was of a theme reflecting the history and culture of the community. Wendy, having seen several community-based parks before, including one in Pleasant Grove, Utah, had a science and learning based theme in mind. The two then contacted Pleasant Grove officials to learn about how their community had gone about building their park. From Pleasant Grove, they learned that a professional architectural firm out of Ithaca, New York, had been used, and were given the information they would need to contact Leathers. Leathers, which specializes in community-built parks, has worked at sites all around the world. These parks include sites in Indian Harbor Beach, Florida; Goodland, Kansas; Dallas, Texas; Hamilton, Virginia; the site in Pleasant Grove, Utah; and sites in Canada, Australia and Israel. Leathers have engineered over 1,600 structures and parks for communities in the United States alone, giving guidance in areas such as local liability laws, community involvement issues, safety, disabled access and environmental concerns. After communicating with several Cedar City officials, Linda and Wendy came into contact with Glen Spencer of Cedar City Parks and Recreation Division. Glen was sold on the idea from the first time the women contacted him and outlined their idea. They now had an ally in the city to go to bat for the idea. Shortly after, Glen and the two women converted Bob Tate, Director of Parks and Recreation to the idea and the park seemed to be gaining momentum as a concept. At this point, the women were spending the majority of their days in the conception phase of this project, with much uncertainty but equal amounts of dedication and momentum on their side. The two contacted Mark Kohler, who is a student-employee of Higbee and Associates, who began giving his time and legal advice, and on May 5th, 2000 a Park Discovery Board was created, making it official. After attending public meetings at Parks and Recreation, the two met Nina Barnes, who they recruited to be a committee member. With Nina’s experience in dealing with community projects and the ins and outs of dealing with the city on these projects, she was elected general coordinator for the Park Discovery Board in June, 2000. Soon after, Wendy Spradley and her family moved their family to Ogden, Utah, and sadly ended her involvement in the quest for the Park Discovery. By this time, however, with the help of Leathers, the committee to build Park Discovery had grown in breadth and depth, encompassing more sub-committees than any of the founders could have originally envisioned.
The concept that the committee came up with for the Park Discovery was intended to go far beyond the traditional swing and slide style park. The park is intended to both provide exciting play and an active learning environment for the children of the community. First, in form, the park is intended to be an adventuresome maze of towers, forts, tunnels, boats, bridges, slides and sand boxes. Second, in function, the park has interactive science features built directly into the structure of the entire site. Features were added to help incorporate geology, paleontology, physics, astronomy, history, art and natural sciences. The park is intended to cater to all age groups and includes a toddler area, benches and picnic area, restrooms and landscaping to appeal to the whole family. The Park Discovery is based directly upon designs of several other parks designed by Leathers.
On the organization end of the project, Leathers worked with the committee and specifically the general coordinators, concentrating on putting specialization committees into place, establishing nonprofit status and building a Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees included: Linda Justus, President; Wendy Spradley, Nina Barnes, Mark Kohler, Bruce Hughes, Gerald Sherratt, Jana Dettamanti, Dennis Gray and Kyle Garrett. The Trustees were responsible for the overseeing of all resources and decision-making where finances were concerned. This included, but was not limited to purchasing, large donation oversight and decision-making concerning unspecified projects for the park infrastructure. Some of the Trustees were sought out as non-board members, specifically community leaders of one persuasion or another, to give the community a hand in overseeing the development of the park. The thought process behind this decision was that the more influential members of the community that were involved in the planning and financial aspects of the Park Discovery, the higher the likelihood that the community as a whole would get behind the project with both funds and private time.
One of the first sub-committees that the general coordinators created under advisement from Leathers, was a public relations committee. The Public Relations committee used all sorts of media and resources to reach nearly every segment of the community. Part of the strategy of the committee was to involve not only people from Cedar City, but also people from all around the region, including St. George and the Fillmore/Beaver area.
The Volunteer committee spent an incredible amount of time and showed great resourcefulness in finding sources of volunteerism within the community. The first groups to be tapped by the committee were the local wards of the LDS church, the Catholic and Presbyterian churches as well. In the end, 25 of 60 local wards showed as wards to volunteer time and labor, the rest were known to have had a large number of their members volunteer as individuals. Among the other sources tapped by the Volunteer committee, the following organizations provided paid days for their employees who volunteered their time during certain phases of the construction of Park Discovery: Brian Head Ski Resort, Cedar City (1 day) public workers, Bureau of Land Management (3 days). Utah Power dug post -holes for lights and fencing as well as laying line for power to the entire facility- including the areas designated for future sections of the park. The committee went to all of the major community events including the Fall/Winter Festivals, 4th and 24th of July celebrations, the Shakespearean festival outdoor events and did community awareness sign-ups at each event. After Christmas, the committee contacted all major local business, including local banks, auto dealers and the hospital, and did presentations for each. The public school system ended up being very useful in disseminating information to the public through leaflets that were sent home with children in all age groups. The leaflets highlighted what the Park Discovery was intended to be and contained a call for money and help. The Volunteer Committee’s contact phone numbers were on each leaflet and parents or family members were encouraged to call and volunteer time to help build a resource for their children. Over 500 fliers and posters, including lawn-signs with names and numbers to call were placed all over Cedar City and Enoch. When the leaflets from the school district were returned and sufficient time had been given for the leaflets to have affect, the coordinating committee set up a call-a-thon from the SUU Alumni house and called all prospective volunteers to fill a pre-set construction schedule, which was provided by Leathers. In the end, word of mouth ended up being the biggest draw for labor volunteers. Out of this, worthy of note is the fact that the volunteer committee set up a child-care facility/tent during the construction phase. The childcare helped draw mothers at a rate that was twice what was expected by the committee, to the project.
On the fund raising front, as many varied and creative approaches to the problem were taken as were used with the volunteer committee. Outside of the major business and corporate sponsors, there were many individuals and families as well as community groups that donated funds to the project. Some of the major non-business contributors included the Iron County School District, SUU Student Association, Kiwanis, Elks, Rotary and Kolob Regional Care and Rehab. Other, non-donation, fundraising approaches used were selling pickets with buyers names carved in them for the fencing surrounding the park. Selling tiles imprinted with the handprint of a child and the family or child’s name to be on walls and structures within the park. Also, along with the leaflets the children of the school district took home, they also were encouraged to participate in a drawing contest for the official logo of the Park Discovery. The winners of the contest, Stuart Merrill and Athena Anderson had their logos placed on the front and back of t-shirts and sweatshirts that were sold with great success in the community to raise funds. Ever conscious of the interconnectedness of the community and the importance of tying as many links from the community to the park, the coordinating committees for the Park Discovery showed that they were in touch and in tune with their home town.
The process that Leathers had set out for the general committee to follow called for a succession of theme days with specific, goal oriented purposes to fall during key times in the planning process. The first of these that connected the project with the community was Design Day, on October 16, 2000. On Design Day, the project representative from Leathers; Dennis Willie, met with residents, teachers, children and park committee members to take suggestions, drawings, diagrams and even wish lists. Ideas and requests included; but were not limited to, dinosaur skeletons, space shuttle, castle, telephone systems, draw bridges, tree houses, tunnels and slides. After Design Day, the decisions were made for the individual parts of the park and Leathers provided the committee with architectural drawings, specifications and detailed material lists necessary to fully complete construction of the park.
Of the other key days, the most important in the eyes of those involved with the execution of the project was Organization Day. Another Leather’s Associate came and met with committee members to check on progress and to help map out a strategy to lead into the final stages of the project. Considerations included, site inspection, final design, reviewing plans, schedules, individual responsibilities, construction details, and meeting with the individual committee chairs to ensure their pieces of the puzzle were meeting the schedule. Following this meeting, the plan moved into what was called the Pre-Construction period. This period was where each committee was finalizing their respective responsibilities, such as: volunteer recruitment, sponsors, media coverage, money for current projects, machinery and tools, security for the site during construction, delivery scheduling, power to the site, and site preparation. This whole process was guided by Leathers via phone and on site visits with the general coordinators and committee chairs.
The structural concerns with which Leathers approached the project were primarily the job that they were hired to do. Leathers required that all materials used in its design were of the highest quality to ensure durability and longevity. Specially selected and treated wood, high quality sealer, screws and connectors were OK’d by Leathers to ensure the safety of the construction. Also, only non-toxic materials were used in the project. The local volunteers did the physical construction of the park. All actual construction was supervised on site by Leathers to ensure that codes and quality standards were adhered to. By the end of construction, over 5,000 people and over 14,000 hours of work and planning had gone into the project. Volunteers were of varied skill levels, of which the bulk was largely unskilled. Jobs such as sorting, unloading, painting, daycare and the obvious sawing and hammering were scheduled on a day-by-day basis. Even children’s help was accepted and they were allowed to work with the food or in sanding. Many entire families were involved in the entire process from near its inception to the opening of the park on November 10,2001.
Bringing a community together in such an endeavor is no easy task. Through perseverance, determination and dedication by all of those involved in this extraordinary project, a dream was made into a reality. With the parks committee in place in an ongoing project such as this, there is room to grow both in the physical aspects of the park as well as in the educational. To ensure something special for present and future generations, a final committee, the Friends of the Park Committee was created to deal with issues and ideas concerning the park and the money it is still raising for future additions. Any community member may approach the committee with an idea; to include funding, materials, labor and architecture, and if the committee deems the idea to be practical and fit within the theme of the park, it would support the addition. This final step in the Park Discovery project shows yet again the level of dedication that were both required and willingly given by the citizens of Cedar City and its surrounding areas. I, as a parent and a community member am extremely grateful for the sacrifices made by all of the people who dedicated parts of their lives to the making a Discovery.