VOLUNTEERING Makeover continues on Packard Park playground

Volunteers erected new playground equipment last year.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Work on a playground installed last year at Packard Park continues next month.
Sprint and the North End Environmental Development group are looking for about 30 volunteers to work July 9 to clean the playground. Sprint also will provide 100 new playground balls and present NEED with a $1,000 check.
NEED is a citizens group formed to address neighborhood concerns ranging from crime to beautification.
Stephanie Shaw, a Sprint spokeswoman, said the playground balls, similar to those used to play dodge ball in elementary school, will be divided among the YWCA, Rebecca Williams Community Center, Alliance Community Outreach Program and Shepherd of All God's Children, which offer children's activities.
Good use
Leslie Dunlap, secretary of NEED, said the group has many activities for which the $1,000 donation will be useful.
Each winter, the group offers North Street North Pole, a Christmas display, for residents; on the second and fourth Fridays of each month it provides a food giveaway.
This year, NEED also wants to feature a fashion show for girls who can't afford to buy prom dresses, Dunlap said. The group also has a community garden on a formerly vacant and overgrown lot that is maintained by members and neighborhood residents.
"We've got quite a few irons in the fire," she said.
Volunteers will clean the playground area next month at the Mahoning Avenue park and paint the old equipment.
Last year, KaBoom, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., approved NEED's application for a new playground. The organization builds playgrounds around the country through corporate and community organizations.
Graffiti artists marked much of the older playground equipment and some of the newer pieces at the playground, and part of volunteers' work will be to clean and paint over that, Shaw said.
Call Shaw at (330) 841-1222 to volunteer.