Fund drive starting for Loyal Westside Park splash pad
Fundraising efforts are currently underway to construct a splash pad facility at the Loyal Westside Community Park. Still early in the campaign, the group behind the project to bring in the water-themed equipment is trying an unusual method involving shoes to reach its $200,000 goal.
Erin Shafto is one of the leaders behind the Loyal Splash Pad fundraiser, which is now nearing the end of two months of fundraising. At the end of January, she said the group had raised more than $2,000 through its first fundraiser of selling greeting cards. It plans to continue to operate at least one fundraising effort each month.
“We started fundraising in January,” she said. “We reached a good amount in fundraising for the first month. We did a fundraiser for season’s greeting cards and had a $500 matching donation … We are hoping to be able to do one fundraiser per month, we will put posts on Facebook to keep interest.”
The effort to bring a splash pad to Loyal began last November after the Loyal City Council was approached with plans to create a new playground space in the Westside Community Park by Kaitlyn and Matt Schrock in honor of their son, Lincoln Schrock. At the time, a splash pad was only a passing thought, but has since grown into an effort all of its own.
“They (the Schrock family) have always supported the splash pad,” said Shafto. “We were originally in a committee together, but we determined they weren’t going to be in the same location. Still the family supports the attempts to bring this to Loyal.”
Shafto said the goal is to reach $200,000 in donations for the splash pad. Of that amount, she said $160,000 would be going directly towards installing the equipment in the park, which is expected to happen sometime during the summer of 2021. The rest of the funds would be used to cover future maintenance projects.
“If we get donations I believe it will go quickly,” she said. “We live in a community that’s very generous and willing to give.”
For its second fundraiser, Shafto said they have decided to try a different approach to get donations. For a majority of fundraisers, she said people ask for some form of financial contribution toward a cause. This time around though, they decided to look for something else people could donate that could have the same effect.
“We were looking for fundraisers that didn’t just involve donating money,” she said. “In this area we have different financial situations that give us different abili- ties to help. We wanted something anyone could give to. We did an online search for those specific kinds of fundraisers.”
That online search led them to a company called Funds 2 Orgs, a company that collects new or gently used pairs of shoes and takes them to families in Haiti. The shoes donated to the cause will be used by the Haitian families as a way to boost their own income while Funds 2 Orgs will send the Splash Pad fundraiser a check based on the shoes’ weight.
“We send the shoes through the company and they ship them to Haiti,” said Shafto. “We get a check back from the company based on the weight of the shoes, we get 40 cents per pound for the shoes. The families in Haiti will sell the shoes to raise their own income. It sets up entrepreneurs in Haiti.”
The kickoff for the shoe drive will be on Feb. 28. Shafto said they will be collecting shoes for 60 days, ending the event on April 28. The goal is to get 2,500 pairs of shoes, a goal that was set by Funds 2 Orgs based on their own criteria.
“They felt we would be able to achieve that goal,” she said. “We will weekly collect shoes from our collection bins, pair them up and bag 25 pairs of shoes into larger bags and the company will pick up the bags.”
For now, Shafto said there will be collection bins located at Hair We Are, Uplifting Movement and Fitness, the Loyal Public Library, Little Angels Daycare Center and the elementary and high school offices at Loyal School District. All new and gently used shoes — excluding roller blades and ice skates — regardless of size or type will be accepted.
“We’re hoping to make it as easy as possible to fit with different work times and schedules,” she said.
Shafto said she hopes the community will be able to exceed the goal set by Funds 2 Orgs during its 60-day run. For those who donate, she said it is a unique opportunity to help two different organizations achieve their objectives and help people in need get better opportunities where they live.
“The more shoes we collect, the more we can positively impact people in Haiti,” she said. “It’s a good feeling to help a third world country, they have low income so they can sell the shoes to support their families. At our end, we’re just getting rid of junk, but we can positively impact the people in Haiti.”
While the shoe drive is going on, Shafto said people can still make financial contributions through a Loyal Splash Pad account at Citizens State Bank or they can purchase a memory brick that will be placed around the completed splash pad. For more information about current and upcoming fundraisers from the Loyal Splash Pad, please see the Splash Pad Coming to Loyal Facebook page.
