The Project Play Spruce Up awards, announced last week, will improve:
→Sunset Park, at 10 Russell Rd., which will be able to expand its play area at the northwest corner of the park and install at lease one piece of play equipment for preschoolers.
→Brookvalley Park, at Holmes Run Parkway and North Ripley Street, which will replace swings and another piece of equipment.
→Lyles Crouch Traditional Academy school park, 530 S. St. Asaph St., which will install a fence and plantings along a parking lot.
→Angel Park, 201 West Taylor Run Pkwy., which will receive at least two interactive panels appropriate for 2- to 5-year-olds.
The city’s Department of Recreation, Parks and Cultural Activities will finish work on these parks by April 30, completing the initiative of the groups: Alexandria Childhood Obesity Action Network, Alexandria/Arlington Smart Beginnings, Partnership for A Healthier Alexandria and ACTion Alexandria, part of the community foundation Act for Alexandria.
Exercise opportunity is sorely needed: A 2007 survey by Inova Health System’s Healthy Weight Collaborative reported that some of the youngest Alexandrians are most often overweight or obese, even compared to Arlington County kids. Almost a quarter of Alexandrians between ages 6 and 10 are also overweight; 13 percent of preteens and teens are.
Alexandrians who signed up at ACTion Alexandria’s Web site suggested 17 city parks to receive the money. Although all couldn’t be addressed at once, the suggestions gave officials a sense of the needs and ideas for specific repairs. That civic engagement is part of a year-old online effort that ACTion Alexandria community manager Tracy Viselli calls “technology-aided barn-raising.”
“A couple of years ago, after 2008, we saw a real need in Alexandria. We wanted to develop an online community to connect neighbors and organizations to take action,” she said. “The goal is to build a better community.”
For example, a local nonprofit agency found that its clients who were struggling with housing costs had no money for diapers. A call went out on ACTion Alexandria’s site, and boxes containing 2,500 diapers arrived. During flu season, another nonprofit group knew it could save its clients trips to hospital emergency rooms if they could provide sick children with Pedialyte. The Web site listed the request, and donors filled the agency’s cupboards.
More than 1,900 people have signed up to be what are essentially donors on demand. The actions range from volunteers needed at a shelter for domestic-violence victims to an appeal for old computer hardware. They also suggest other sources of need that can be showcased on the site.
Those 1,900 people represent 1.3 percent of Alexandria’s population. Viselli’s goal for next year at this time is for membership to reach 15,000.
The city invested $50,000 for the first two years of the civic engagement project, the Knight Foundation added a $102,000 grant, ACT for Alexandria donated $50,000, and a private family foundation contributed another $50,000.
“Normally, for projects like these, you need to give them a couple of years to take hold,” Viselli said. “Compared to similar projects in New York City and Philadelphia, [our] participation levels are higher.”
Viselli said that Alexandria residents tend to be active in their neighborhoods as well as their town overall, and there are strong connections between neighbors. “It’s also a very generous city,” she added.
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