Long Beach community raising money to rebuild playground that was burned down
Partners of Parks is aiming to raise one million dollars to rebuild Admiral Kidd playground.
LONG BEACH, Calif. (KABC) -- Partners of Parks is a nonprofit organization in Long Beach that has announced their campaign to raise money to rebuild the Admiral Kidd playground in west Long Beach. Their goal is to raise one million dollars.
"The playground burned down mysteriously on July 18th during the summer and then we still don't know the cause, and unfortunately the city's deductible is 1.5 million so we have to come up with those funds," said Trinka Roswell, Executive Director of Partners of Parks.
Rowsell says to her knowledge, the person who could have caused this fire has not been caught and the cameras in the park near the playground were not working when the fire happened.
We're told the cameras are operational now.
"I checked with Chief Espino and this particular case is still under investigation so I think you know, it's really a tough thing when things happen in the dark of night," said Brent Dennis, the Director of parks, recreation, and marine.
A small portion of the playground was not burned down during the fire.
"I think being isolated for 15, 16 months of the pandemic and then during summer time, the one place that you could go during the pandemic was the park, and then to have the kids sit on the swings and see the charred remains of the playground, it has to be devastating," said Rowsell.
The after school program at Admiral Kidd playground has also been impacted.
"When you have a positive space to give kids some afterschool time to socialize and just to have fun, when that's gone, I'm just concerned about where those kids are," Dennis said.
The goal is to raise the money by December and construction could take up to 6 months. If you're interesting in donating you can do it online at tinyurl.com/helpkidd.
Sponsors are needed, but you can also donate as little as 25 dollars or 300 dollars to have a commemorative brick in your name.
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