Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

In February 2021, the Lincoln Playground Committee set out to make a change for our children, our neighborhood, our community. Our goal was to raise $200,000 to replace the deteriorating playground equipment behind Lincoln Elementary. With the help of generous donors, we were able to raise over $55,000 in a 6 month period!

While we were overwhelmed with the support of our donors, we recognized that we were in for years of fundraising before our goal would be met. With this in mind, we took our case to the district 200 school board in May. I am pleased to say that the school board agreed that maintaining playgrounds should be part of the district capital projects budget! At the school board meeting on August 18th, the capital projects plan for 2022 was approved.

The school district sent inspectors to all of the playgrounds in district 200 and declared ours to be in the worst shape. In addition to the playground behind the school, they also found the playground in front of the school to be in need of replacement. Here is the amazing news - by combining the money that we raised with the money from the district, we will be able to replace both playgrounds! And by putting playgrounds on the capital projects budget, we have made a positive change not just for our school, but for the entire district. Not just for today, but for the future!

Thank you so much to everyone involved in this effort. The playground committee members, the children of Lincoln Elementary with their lemonade stands, inventions, and cow coin collections, the principal at Lincoln, Dr. Mitchem, the district 200 school board, the superintendent, Dr. Schuler, everyone who donated money and shoes, everyone who participated in the queen of hearts raffle, everyone who came out to our food trucks, and everyone coming to our top golf event. I am proud of our community. I am proud to call you my neighbor.