UNIVERSITY VILLAGE — More than 200 volunteers came together to build a new playground at Barbara Jean Wright Courts that will benefit 500 neighborhood kids.
Volunteers from Radio Flyer, Chicago Community Development Corporation organizers from KaBOOM! and other community members joined forces last week to build the new playground at the courts, 1354 S. Morgan St. Ald. Patrick D. Thompson (11th), Cook County Commissioner John P. Daley (11th) and Vince Sanchez, chief of staff to Ald. Danny Solis (25th), attended a ribbon cutting to officially open the new play area Thursday.
In total, the donated labor and building materials that made the playground a reality represented an estimated $500,000 investment in the neighborhood, Thompson said.
"This is tremendous," Thompson said. "There a lot of kids here at Barbara Jean Wright homes that really needed somewhere to play."
The Barbara Jean Wright Courts community has been without a playground for more than three years. Previously, the neighborhood's 500 kids would have to walk an unsafe distance and cross busy streets to access the nearest park, according to a spokeswoman for East Lake Management Group, the firm that manages the Courts.
The playground design was based on children's drawings that were created at a design event in May.
Chicago Community Development Corporation's Anthony Fusco Jr., Ald. Patrick D. Thompson (11th) and Radio Flyer CEO Robert Pasin cut the ribbon to open the new playground at Barbara Jean Wright Courts Thursday. [DNAinfo/Stephanie Lulay]
With its partners, national non-profit KaBOOM! has built, improved and opened nearly 16,300 playgrounds and engaged more than one million volunteers. The playground is the seventh built by Radio Flyer and KaBOOM!
Barbara Jean Wright apartments, a 272-unit low-income housing project, was acquired by Chicago Community Development Corporation in 1999. The CCDC implemented an affordable rent structure at the property to prevent displacement of residents and to preserve the property from potential conversion to market-rate housing. A $6.5 million rehab of the property was completed in 2001.
The new playground at Barbara Jean Wright Courts in University Village. [DNAinfo/Stephanie Lulay]
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