Irish Channel Neighborhood Association

Friends and Neighbors,

We have narrowed our playground design to three options. We’d like to get some thoughts on which design you would like us to use. Unfortunately, we will not be able to modify these designs; we can only choose one of the three.

You can see all three options on the www.irishchannel.org website. Please take a look at all three options and send your comments to webmaster@irishchannel.org. We will be accepting your comments until Noon, Monday July 19^th.

We’ll take all the comments we receive and we will make a final decision Monday evening. We’ll announce the decision on the website.

Thank You for your help!

Design #1

Design #2

Design #3

Dear Neighbors,

The Irish Channel is poised to take our next step in providing quality recreational opportunities for our neighborhood youth, and we hope you will join us in this exciting opportunity.

Over the past two years, the Irish Channel has focused on improving recreational opportunities for our children. This has led to several positive steps forward such as the creation of a Booster Club for Lyons Center & Burke Park and NORD’s re-introduction of athletic programs at these parks. These efforts have brought several neighborhood groups together, building increased momentum for improved neighborhood recreational opportunities.

Neighborhood park enhancement is a cornerstone of this growing effort. Kicking off the enhancement of Burke Park/Clay Square, The Chris Paul Foundation, the Hornets, and Helm Paint partnered to repaint the Basketball Courts. The Lyons-Burke Boosters worked with the City of New Orleans to repair the basketball court lights so we can now play basketball into the evening. Our next step in upgrading Burke Park/Clay Square is the installation of new, high-quality playground equipment, and we need your help to make this step a success

A community partnership spearheaded by the Irish Channel Neighborhood Association has been awarded a playground makeover by national playground non-profit KABOOM!. With generous corporate sponsorship by the J. Willard Marriott and Alice S. Marriott Foundation, we are scheduled to build a state of the art play area at Burke Park/Clay Playground on Friday, August 27, 2010.

While the corporate sponsor covers the costs of the play equipment, we neighborhood partners are asked to contribute volunteers, tools, and other supplies. Additionally, our community partnership must contribute $7,500 by July 27th. These funds will cover our portion of the costs for the playground.

Please support our efforts by donating toward this community fund. You can click to donate via Paypal on the main page.  We also welcome raffle items for our upcoming fundraiser and/or Build Day volunteer appreciation raffle.  If you would like more details please do not hesitate to contact us.

Quality recreational opportunities are a benefit to the entire neighborhood, improving the overall quality of life for all of us. We hope we can count on you to help us move our neighborhood forward. Your gifts and/or donations to the Burke/Clay Playground are tax deductible. The Irish Channel Neighborhood Association is the fiduciary sponsor and the tax ID number is: 72-1333677. But more importantly, your contribution will go directly toward providing a tangible improvement to our neighborhood that will enhance our community pride for years to come.

We look forward to hearing from you soon and hope that you join us in making Burke Park/Clay Square a true gem in the Irish Channel.

Respectfully,

Irish Channel Neighborhood Association                                               Lyons Burke Boosters
Irish Channel Christian Fellowship                                                            Rachel Sims Baptist Mission

Live Oak School is building a new playground on 2/29/08 (first Saturday after Mardi Gras).  Come join your neighbors and volunteer school psychologists, in NOLA for a convention, to help build a fantastic new playground for Live Oak!  Thanks THRICE AGAIN to KaBOOM!  This is our neighborhood’s third KaBOOM! playground and our children are reaping the benefits from having safe and creative places for healthy play within walking distance of their homes.

We’re getting ready and set to go build a playground!  Please mark your calendars for Friday, November 2 and come be a part of the excitement.  Plan on arriving at 8 a.m., but come later if you can’t make it that early.  The celebratory ribbon cutting ceremony will be at 2:30 p.m. and we hope to have everything done by then!  Again, very special thanks to KaBOOM!, the Marriott, and The Hill School for making this possible.  The children of the Irish Channel have a lot to look forward to.

The KaBoom! planning meeting brought together not only the kids but the adults as well. We met with our KaBoom! team and several members of the local Marriott hotels who are providing not only financial help but so much more. 

 Joe Blanchek, General Manager of the Convention Center Marriott explained that this was going to be the team’s second playground build- they felt so good after the first one that they couldn’t wait to dive into another! Post-Katrina the hotels nationwide took up collections to help their New Orleans co-workers, and after Mr. Marriott matched the funds they had enough money to assist every employee with much leftover. 

These playgrounds are where much of the surplus is being invested.

And it doesn’t stop at the playground- they are very generously providing all food and beverages, volunteers, entertainment, medical assistance and more- well above and beyond the call of duty.

We truly appreciate all their help and look forward to working with them!  

The planning meeting with KaBoom! on Thursday afternoon was a blast- pun intended!

Lots of kids came out to see what this playground project would mean to them. They got very involved, taking over the measuring of the field:

Then it was time to head inside and get down to the serious business of the day.

Everyone gathered while Whitney, our KaBoom! project manager explained how it all worked, making sure the kids knew just how important they were in the process.

Then they went to work, each child imagining and drawing their ideal playground.

The plans were then shown off to the group before the kids went off to play and adults got down to details.

Meet at the playground at Soraparu and Rousseau to help design the new playground! 

We’re looking for 20 local children and 15 adults to come out and help design the new playground at Soraparu and Rousseau!  Gather at the playground at 3:30 p.m. and plan to stay until 5 p.m.  You’ll get to help select each piece of the playground, from design to placement and color.  Refreshments will be served! 

Cele has had a fantastic conference call with the KaBoom! offices- the Hill School has gotten a fantastic sponsor. Marriott has stepped forward to work with the school and neighborhood to put this project together.

 The next step will take place on August 22, where we will have a meeting with KaBoom! and as many local kids as possible to get an idea of what equipment they’d most like to have.

Kaboom! is coming back to the Irish Channel! Cele Husing is heading this project on behalf of the Neighborhood Association.