Ken Chapman noticed the little playground at 11th and Washington, though overgrown with weeds and bushes it was the main recreation area for children living in the Gary Housing Authority’s scattered site property.

After work at the Calumet Township Trustee Office one day, Chapman took his weed whacker to the play lot and cleared what weeds he could. Chapman next asked Adonia Community Services if they could help. 

“Yes, we can,” said Adonia’s George Peach, who sent a work crew to the park, clearing thick brush that hid much of the play area. Last weekend, volunteers with the Froebel Community Council added the playground to their regular cleanup duties along 11th Avenue.

This week, some long lasting improvements started. Monday, crews from Gary’s Parks Dept. and volunteers from LARRI (Lakeshore Area Regional Recovery of Indiana) put their boots on the ground.

With the Park Departments heavy earth moving equipment and LARRI’s 30 strong bodies, trees and bushes were unearthed and the mulch beneath the climbing and play equipment removed.

During the week, LARRI volunteers will construct 2 park shelters, add benches, and give the playground equipment a new coat of paint.

LARRI’s communications director Donna George said “We will be really busy during June and July with lots of volunteers coming in to do community work.” LARRI came into existence to help residents in Lake, Porter, and LaPorte counties whose homes were damaged in the 2008 floods. George said LARRI was able to access funds other than flood recovery monies to perform the community projects. 
  

LARRI has projects for 200 volunteers this week. They are working at Gary Neighborhood Services, Gary Historical & Cultural Society, Faith UCC in Hammond, Exceptional Equestrians in Hobart, Southside Christian Church in Munster, and the Urban League of Northwest Indiana in Gary.

Volunteers at the playground are church groups with a long history of volunteering. Cutting 2x4s for the park shelters were volunteers from Salem Bellemans Church in Mohrsville, PA. Their 13-person crew included general contractor Dennis Felix whose construction experience will be relied on to build the shelters. Bellemans has undertaken summer volunteer projects for the past 8 years, traveling to New Orleans, LA, Biloxi, MS, Arizona, Kentucky, Kansas, and Indiana.

Performing painting and cleanup at the playground were volunteers from St. Paul Lutheran, Trinity Lutheran of Richmond, MI, and Fowlers Mills Christian Church of Chardon, Ohio.

At the Urban League, volunteers from the Southern Illinois DuBois Center, near Centralia, are ripping out carpet and replacing it with tile, painting, cleaning, and organizing books and reading materials. For Nelie McNeal, the volunteer group’s coordinator, “We’re taking care of the Urban League so they can take care of the community.” The DuBois Center is sponsored by the United Church of Christ.

Local volunteers have also stepped in for the Urban League. Assilene Long and Wanda Barnes give time each week to the Urban League.

During the week of July 12-16, five hundred volunteers will be at work on projects in LARRI’s 3-county area. East Chicago will benefit from 223 teens who will be involved in a range of home repair duties, from painting houses to putting new roofs on homes. The teens are from World Changers, an initiative of the North American Mission Board, part of the Southern Baptist Convention.