Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday for the new playground at Baker Youth Club, 1401 E. Smith St., Warsaw. Pictured are Chamber staff and ambassadors, along with BYC staff and board of directors members. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — Thanks to the generosity of the community, kids at Baker Youth Club have new playground equipment to have fun on.

Tuesday, Oct. 8, the local youth development agency had a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the playground with the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce.

Tracy Furnivall, BYC executive director, said when the former club facility was built on West Market Street, they had a playground there. Then when BYC moved to 1401 E. Smith St., Warsaw, eight to nine years ago, there has never been a playground.

“So, it’s been in our vision. We really started to make the push five years ago and finally got it done,” he said.

To raise the funds for the playground, BYC underwent a Tag campaign with the help of DreamOn Studios.

K21 Health Foundation also was a huge partner with the playground equipment by providing a grant, Furnivall said. G & G Hauling & Excavating did all the dirt work and donated back. Baker Youth Club also contributed some of its own money to be able to finish the project off.

“It’s been a process,” Furnivall said of the installation. “The fence was the final project, and then planting the grass was completed about two weeks ago. So we’re just a couple weeks to having it all done. We’ve had some kids out playing here and there, so we’re getting anxious to getting more of them out. We’re just trying to figure out how that all looks and works. We’ve got 170 kids here after school, we can’t let them all out on the playground.”

The playground was needed because BYC really didn’t have any place for the kids to be outside, especially during their summer program.

“And then all the months from August, when school starts, to it doesn’t end until May, you’ve got so much time where kids can be outside, and we just didn’t have that,” Furnivall said.

BYC would utilize the fairgrounds sometimes during their summer camp, but it’s not always safe to cross Smith Street to get there, and it wasn’t what BYC had visioned.

“So we just knew we needed outdoor space,” he said.

Where the playground is now previously was parking lot space.

“Just the outside activity for kids is so healthy,” Furnivall stated.

The playground equipment is available for use by anyone, but it’s more geared toward kindergarten to third-grade students. Once a child is in fourth, fifth and sixth grade, playgrounds aren’t as exciting for them, he said, but the BYC has its Gaga pit for them upstairs.

Features of the playground include slides, a big swing, a wheel-chair accessible ramp and swing, the new version of monkey bars and a rock climbing side.

The playground equipment is phase one, and Furnivall said they hope to do a second phase within the next three to five years.

“We do have some other space out front that we plan over the years to maybe add some new equipment,” he said.
Furnivall doesn’t know what phase two will look like yet.

“What we’ll do is we’ll let the kids utilize this. We’ll talk to the kids, believe or not, and what do you want? What do you enjoy? And then we’ll go out and try to adapt that way and pivot in the direction we need to go – what they enjoy doing,” he stated, adding that the goal is to have a second section added.

If anyone wants to donate to the Baker Youth Club, either toward the playground, meals, art supplies or any of BYC’s needs, Furnivall said that would be “absolutely wonderful.”

Donations can be made on the website. Donors can put in specifically what they want their donation to go toward, or just make a general donation.

If anyone would like to visit the BYC and take a tour to see what they do, Furnivall said he’s always excited to give tours to show people in the community everything they can offer the kids.

“We’re blessed to live in a great community. This isn’t possible without their support, so thanks to K21, G & G Hauling and everyone that invested. I think we had 75 people that invested to the Tag campaign, so very blessed and thankful,” he concluded.