Wooten Park is in need of a shade structure in order to allow parents relief from Austin’s notorious sun while watching their children at the adjacent playground, and improved trash amenities to help keep the park clean.
Wooten Park is a beloved asset in the heart of a diverse neighborhood that contains no other public space. For the many nearby residents who live in large apartment complexes, the park is the only natural space accessible to them. Ours is a neighborhood with many young families, recent immigrants, and low-cost apartment complexes. Wooten Elementary School, which borders the park, serves a student body composed of 92.8% economically disadvantaged students and 80% English language learners. Park access is crucial for child development, physical fitness, and improved mental health, making it all the more important for neighborhoods whose residents are already under significant economic and social stress.
With the input of Austin’s Parks and Recreation Department, we are seeking to build a medium-size shaded pavilion with picnic tables and other seating to allow park users a shaded place to watch children play, host social gatherings, to be used as an outdoor classroom setting for Wooten Elementary, and allow generally increased enjoyment of the park. The Park Committee additionally aims to install sealed, upgraded trash receptacles to prevent overflow and control litter in the park. The shaded pavilion would be constructed where an unsightly and unusable rubberized surface is currently located, which would be removed as part of the construction process.
The Wooten Neighborhood and its Park Committee are currently working with public and private grantors in order to fund the park improvements…but we need your help! The estimated price tag for the park improvements will total somewhere around $50,000. We’re hoping to raise at least $10,000 as part of this campaign. The more funds we’re able to raise, the more funding that grantors are willing to match to fully fund infrastructure improvements. Your help is especially valuable at this time since every dollar could be matched at a ratio as high as 5-1 by granting agencies.
While we’ve been given positive feedback and an optimistic outlook from the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department, please note that if we do not obtain a match grant to complete the entire project we also reserve the right to use any funds raised for partial components of this project ie seating, trashcans, etc.