Community Spotlight Mrs. R.R. Harris & The Friends of Collier Park

As part of Park Pride’s mission to work with communities to improve their parks, Park Pride executive director George Dusenbury, visited every neighborhood planning unit (NPU) in the City of Atlanta.  His goal was to reach out to communities that had not been involved with Park Pride to let them know how Park Pride could help improve their park.  During his tour, Dusenbury met Mrs. R.R. Harris, president of NPU H.  Mrs. Harris lives in the Adamsville community, an older, African-American community in south west Atlanta.

The community had been working to develop a gateway at the Adamsville Triangle, a small piece of greenspace along Martin Luther King, Jr., Drive.  Park Pride’s Micro Grant Program provided $500 to help install landscaping and a new fountain.  In the ensuing months, Mrs. Harris made ample use of Park Pride’s tool bank and volunteers.  The Adamsville Triangle was soon transformed.

Mrs. Harris began attending Park Pride community meetings – and she brought friends.  Together, they attended Park Pride’s inaugural Friends Raising seminar, where they met park experts from the Piedmont Park Conservancy, Vine City and Chastain Park who shared lessons about how to get organized to improve community parks.  The Friends of Collier Park, one of two community parks in NPU H, was born.

Mrs. Harris and the newly formed Friends group attended Park Pride’s first Community Design Clinic at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, left with a planting plan for the entrance to Collier Park.  This project was just the beginning.

Working with Park Pride, Collier Park Friend Barbara Leath received a scholarship to a Kaboom! “World of Play” conference, where she learned about the LifeTrail system,   a fitness system for older active adults that combines a walking trail with ten instructional fitness stations.  To make their dreams a reality, the Friends of Collier Park raised $150,000.  Park Pride’s  Fiscal Partners Program, served as the non-profit organization for fundraising, tracking and acknowledging donations for a new Collier Park.

On Saturday, May 20, 2006, the Friends of Collier Parks’ dreams became a reality when they christened the first complete LifeTrail Outdoor Fitness System in the State of Georgia. Government and community leaders gathered for the ribbon-cutting for the new playground and Life Trail system.    The program has received prominent local and national media coverage.

Last March, the Friends of Collier Park were chosen to participate in Park Pride’s Park Visioning program.  When the program is completed in October, Collier Park will be the fifth community to have a new conceptual master plan for their park, courtesy of Park Pride.