Community Corner
Jackson Park Project Enters Home Stretch
Organizers hope to break ground on the park as early as September. Saturday offers two ways to give the project a boost.
Kevin Donaher remembers the sounds of kids playing on Saturday mornings at Jackson Park.
Bouncing balls, whoops and peels of laughter.
For six years those sounds of neighborhood life have been harder to hear.
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He hopes to hear them again, and to see neighbors relaxing on the park's benches and grass.
Donaher and other members of the Jackson Park Playground Project have been working for four years to make the park a reality.
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Saturday will continue that effort with their monthly scrap metal collection day at the Department of Public Works from 8:30 a.m, until noon.
The park supporters will also be selling Jackson Park T-shirts, hats, carry-coolers and blankets from a table at the Swampscott Harbor Festival at Fisherman's Beach.
Through the metal collection, movie nights in the park and the generosity of residents and businesses as well as seed money set aside by a legal settlement and money from the High School Building Committee, the park fund has $75,000.
The fund has a ways to go, but Donaher thinks work will start in late summer or early fall.
When completed the park will include walkways, benches, a half-basketball court, a handball court and a sledding area among other attractions.
Another main item will be an Evos System playground.
The futuristic looking structure includes arched web-like arms and stations for climbing, crawling and walking.
Ultimately, the park will be a place for all ages and all seasons, Donaher said.
The effort to get the playground built harkens back to right after Swampscott High School was built.
Before construction on the school started, Jackson Park included ball fields, a skating rink and natural areas.
Donaher fought the school but sees the park as a way to leave a positive mark on the neighborhood.
He said he and others including his wife, Karen, Joe Markarian, Chris Miles, John Picariello and Myriam Rosen have forged close ties on the park project.
"We work really hard collecting metal, and we have fun," he said.
Organizers have enjoyed the support of selectmen and Town Administrator Andrew Maylor, he said.
Maylor recently brought in a $750 contribution to the park project from the people who shot parts of the movie Ted in Swampscott.
Donaher wants to see the project through to completion.
"It's important to me to really build a neighborhood and reestablish the neighborhood so people are out meeting people and the kids have a safe place to go," he said.
Donations to the park can be sent to the Swampscott Rotary, PO Box 36, Swampscott, MA 01907. Cehcks should be made out to the Swampscott Rotary but include Jackson Park on the memo line.
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