As Vilonia continues to recover from last year's tornado, more than 100 volunteers took to the soggy, muddy ground Saturday to rebuild a park for the town's growing number of children, making it even better than before.
The park's design -- which includes monkey bars, tetherball, a new-age merry-go-round and a twisting slide -- was created from children's drawings and vision for the sort of park they desired.
"Some of them had very elaborate artwork," said Kelly Lawrence, city clerk and a supervisor of Saturday's project.
Some wanted a swimming pool and a dog park, she said, but the new park is a solid amalgamation of the children's most common ambitions.
"They might not get everything they wanted," Mayor James Firestone said, "but I think they'll be very happy."
The memorial park in Vilonia replaces an old one wiped out in the April 27 EF4 tornado, which killed 16 people in central Arkansas, including 11 from Vilonia. The park will be dedicated to the people who lost their lives in the storm.
Nonprofit Kaboom supplied playground materials paid for by funding partner Kimberly-Clark Corp., which gave a grant for up to $200,000 for construction. Kaboom is a nonprofit that has helped in the construction of thousands of parks nationwide; Kimberly-Clark is a paper-products manufacturer with a plant in Maumelle.
Two shaded areas will be part of the playground, one of which will be a pavilion complete with a grill for barbecuing. The town will continue to build it in the coming weeks.
City leaders hope the children who helped design the park will someday take their own children there.
Firestone said most people go to Vilonia for the schools, but often, young adults see no reason to stick around after high school. The town, projected to more than double its population to 10,000 in the next 15 years, is working to change that, creating a town square and business district similar to Hendrix Village in Conway.
The past year of rebuilding and planning has struck Firestone, a longtime Vilonia resident and leader.
"It's a big change," he said.
The park on Cemetery Street will be joined by five baseball fields that also were destroyed in last year's tornado and will be rebuilt using money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and insurance. Planned for later are softball and soccer fields off nearby Mt. Olive Road, new facilities approved in a bond vote before the tornado.
Saturday's volunteers assembled a jungle gym, spread mulch and built wooden benches in a friendly atmosphere backed by blaring '80s music. One volunteer took to the microphone to request that the Top Gun soundtrack be played but had no luck on that.
Volunteers went to the park with friends and co-workers and made new acquaintances while working in teams to carry and assemble the playground equipment. Some wore matching white T-shirts or matching sleeveless purple Kaboom jerseys.
Stevie Patrum, a 51-year-old Vilonia resident, hauled mulch on a blue plastic sheet to the park with Harley Rea, the 16-year-old daughter of her co-worker.
Patrum has built parks before for Kaboom and jumped at the opportunity to build one in her own town.
"Playgrounds and libraries, man, that's what we need," she said.
Rea went to Vilonia with her dad, Dave Rea, both of Austin. Her dad encouraged her to go, and she decided she should "do good for the community," she said.
"It's going to be really cool, it is," Patrum said, "just to see them have a place to play."
Patrum and the Reas were joined by dozens of other volunteers, including members of the Vilonia volunteer Fire Department.
Firefighter Harold Myers, 53, had birthday parties for his grandchildren at the park before it was destroyed.
He shoveled mulch Saturday, sweating in the pre-rainstorm humidity.
"They'll be tickled to have it back," he said of his grandkids.
Metro on 04/19/2015