South Bend Parks Reconnecting a community is brought to you by our title sponsors, a Robbie and Pamela Rask family supporting their history and preservation of the South Bend region.

Mel Hall.

Mel is proud to support this WNIT production, celebrating the revitalization of our parks.

The University of Notre Dame.

And by.

Thank you.

The wide availability and variety of parks and recreation areas in a community are an indication of how a city values its citizens and their quality of life.

The city of South Bend Park system provides an extraordinary number of ways for our community to enjoy a diverse array of recreation, education, wellness and entertainment options.

Currently, there are 65 parks and a total of over 200 public spaces under the overarching umbrella of South Bend venues, Parks and Arts, commonly referred to as VPA, once known as the South Bend Parks and Recreation Board.

The diversity and breadth of the spaces indicated the need for a broader administrative scope, and the VPA has been the driving force behind the recent improvment expansion and diversification of the park system.

A five year strategic plan called MySBParks and Trails, which began in 2017, focused on acquiring new parkland, expanding recreational programing, providing work opportunities and creating substantial resources to build on for the future.

Every single park has its own identity.

We're upgrading 42 parks throughout the entire city.

So we basically, by the time we're done with our five year plan, will have an entirely new park system.

We're already starting to see the dividends being paid from those investments.

And I don't think in South Bend there's a question anymore whether investing in our public places is the right thing to do.

Progress on the parks and trails, improvements of the five year plan can be tracked on an interactive website available at SB VPA dot org slash projects color coded by completion status.

The map provides enhanced information on each initiative by clicking on the identifying dots with details on the improvements being made.

But the choices made by the VPA weren't created in a vacuum.

To inform their decisions, the Parks Department examined the industry trends and benchmarks, consulted with experts and studied best practices of the urban park departments across the country.

But the most important input they received was from the community's most closely connected to the parks.

But one of my favorite parts about this whole MySBParks and Trails plan is the community involvement.

Dozens and dozens of community meetings, thousands of pieces of community feedback, online comments in person forums, notes, letters, emails, phone calls, surveys, you name it.

And every portion of this plan was informed by somebody's dream, hope, vision, thought, concern or otherwise.

And it's fun for me to walk through these parks today and go, oh, I remember when someone suggested we do this or I remember we we were thinking about doing this way.

But it ended up that way because someone had this concept.

The process of design is one that should always respond to its context.

I like to say that without a good understanding of context, everything is just a guess.

And that's especially true with the design of our public spaces.

We do both an in-depth analysis of the physical context.

That's all of the neighborhood that's surrounding the area.

That means really examining how people are using that and looking for ways that we can support that use and looking for ways that we can help them use the place better.

Our way of connecting with the community is talking to the community, listening to what the needs are in the community, and then developing programing that fits those needs.

So if that involves partnerships, partnering with other organizations within the city so that we are making a collective impact together, the private public partnerships is the reason why we were able to do so much across the entire community.

This wouldn't be possible without the generosity of our community and folks stepping forward to invest in our city.

And as I said, this is investing in our city, our quality of life and our future.

From the very inception of our first public park to its reiteration today, we like to think about these first principled reasons why we have parks to begin with.

And that's where that's the basis that becomes the basis for how we've created these.

This plan here for the genesis of the park system in South Bend began over 120 years ago.

In 1879, an ordinance was passed to create Howard Park, the very first public park in South Bend.

In fact, the very idea of a park was a relatively new one at the time.

A local judge and councilman named Tim Howard came up with the idea of turning what was essentially a place full of refuse into the city's first public park.

He didn't call it a public park.

He called it a public pleasure ground.

The name Public Park wasn't even in the vernacular.

And I know there were plazas and town squares and piazzas and athletic fields, formal gardens.

But public parks didn't really exist so when Timothy Howard came up with the concept of a public park in the 1870s.

It was really innovative.

Although the ordinance was passed in 1879, it would be 20 years before the park was completed and officially dedicated in August of 1899.

This had much to do with the fact that it was an unlikely place for a park, a floodplain along the St. Joseph River considered a breeding ground for malaria carrying insects.

The plane was filled in with refugees from the city up to 15 feet deep.

Essentially, Howard Park sits atop a landfill.

Over the years, many improvements were added to Howard Park, most notably the Studebaker electric fountain erected in 1906.

In 1939, the park's administrative building was built on the site.

In the 1950s, a community center, and ice skating rink, were added to the maintenance building erected in 1960.

In 1989, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was installed.

And in 2019, following major upgrades and additions thanks to millions of dollars in individual, corporate and grant money.

A welcome back Howard Park grand reopening was held to celebrate the completion of many projects within the park today as its largest venue.

Howard Park is the gem in the crown of the South Bend Park system with a new mixed use event center featuring a full service restaurant and cafe event and festival lawn areas and the river walk trail.

The park also features 13000 square feet of innovative playground areas, 1500 square feet of interactive fountains and an ice skating trail and pond with warming fire pits.

It's pretty impressive the way we would design this park to be highly active and highly attractive, not only for people within the community, but kind of a beacon for people that come to visit our city and see what South Bend is all about.

Since the creation of Howard Park over 100 years ago, the city has endeavored to create public spaces to serve all of the neighborhoods of greater South Bend while ensuring that the parks were relevant to the surrounding community.

In fact, the mission of South Bend venues, parks and arts is simple, creating community.

It is this goal that drives every action and motivates every objective of the Parks administration as part of the mission of VPA.

A key goal is connecting us to emotionally engaging experiences and to one another.

The wide range of parks and venues within the system offer many opportunities to accomplish this.

And nowhere is that more evident than the Charles Black and Martin Luther King community centers.

We're lucky to have two anchor institutions on the west side of South Bend in the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center and the Charles Black Community Center.

Those facilities are critical to the neighborhoods in terms of the services they provide and be becoming a really safe, open place with safe, positive people around there.

You always want a place to go where you can just let go.

You know, you can do something fun.

You can do it as a family.

The centers offer not only activities, but educational things, too.

We have seniors that come that are fed on a daily basis through real services.

We also have Big Brother, Big Sister, which is a partnership because some of these kids need mentors.

And so we're able to connect them through that partnership with a mentor that will follow them all the way up till they get out of school.

So it's about connection, connecting all of the parts together to make the community.

As I came into this position and started thinking through the master plan in the suite of projects and talking to the community and touring all the sites, it became apparent that there was no facility more in need and more deserving of an upgrade than the Charles Black Community Center.

So is the first one out of the gate.

We did not want to cut corners in that very first project and certainly not for that neighborhood in that community center that was important to us.

And that set the tone for the rest of our projects.

What we did for that space was double it in size.

We had two basketball courts.

We have three total basketball courts, a new weight room, a new concession stand, commercial kitchen, community space music studio, bike shop, art studio.

It is a space that is uber welcoming to the community that is available for programing from cradle to grave.

The center is an important social hub in the community, with programs and activities for all ages, including tutoring, computer classes, fitness classes, open recreation, sports, special events and more.

The Charles Black Center is a community center that means a lot to the community.

It means a safe haven.

It means relaxation.

It also means just coming here just to have a day that you can come out and just recreate.

We see toddlers there.

We see teenagers there.

We see senior citizens there.

There's educational programing, there's recreational programing.

There's STEM programing, music programing, mentorship programs, afterschool programs, dance, hip hop, you name it.

It's probably happening there.

Beyond the facilities and amenities offered at the center, the true value is in its connection to the people of the area.

I myself, I used to come to the Charles Black Center as a child and I was coming like when I was 19 and came from a troubled home.

So I was one of the troubled children that may have came to the center with, you know, like hurt or something that may have happened at home.

And I will come here and Mr. Black, he would just basically be like, let's talk about it.

You know, it just it's always been home, you know, in a safe place, you know, and it's always been, you know, where you can come and feel the love.

Oh, the relationship with the community and the Charles Black Center is unbreakable.

It's a bond that cannot be broken.

It's always fun to do stuff here.

And you get along with almost everybody.

If I had the Charles Black Center right now, I mean, I'd be trying to torture my sister or in my bed playing on my phone, doing stuff that don't make me happy.

I just think that everybody should know that our doors are always open.

You know, if you have a question or concern, you can always come up here.

We're open to new ideas.

We're open to help the community grow.

I've heard countless stories of people who attribute their life life altering experiences because of the fact they were involved and welcomed into those community centers, that that's a part of history that has not changed.

What has changed is our investment into those facilities.

The Martin Luther King Center.

We've seen several upgrades as of late related to air conditioning for the first time ever in the facility, new computer labs and more things yet to come.

They're less than two miles away.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center offers recreation and education opportunities and during the pandemic served as an e-learning center for students in a safe, controlled environment.

But the center is also a place where people gather to celebrate milestones in their lives.

We're here to serve people from birth to death.

We say we have.

Today, I have a repass that's here.

We have baby showers here, birthday, birthday parties, all the things that happened in between wedding receptions.

The center serves as more than a meeting place.

More than an outlet for recreation and activities, it's also a connector that brings people together in a way that goes beyond making acquaintances.

It is very much a family here.

We're home away from home.

I have a little boy that said I have all I need in this place.

I have my food, I have fun, I do my homework, you know, so every so a lot of needs are met here.

There's a lady that walks here for our exercise class and because of the exercise class, made friends in the exercise class and then joined the social group, then joined a seniors club because of it.

So she started as being a lonely woman that didn't have, you know, options to now having a whole social life that's happened.

Both centers feature Friday night life in partnership with Boys and Girls Clubs of St. Joseph County and evening event for high school and middle school students, providing multiple activities, including sports video and board games, open mike poetry jams, cooking lessons, drumming classes, as well as free haircuts, breakout sessions and inspiring messages from community leaders.

Yes, Friday night life came about because we wanted to find something for our young people to do on the weekends.

And so it's a safe haven for the children.

But at the same time, it's a learning experience because we have community leaders that are there to talk about whatever the kids want to talk about.

On the other side of the coin, for some years, a few of the smaller neighborhood parks around the city had fallen into neglect and had been appropriated as territory by youth gangs and were the site of drug use and violence.

There were shootings, there was violence, illicit activity, that park was really derelict in every sense of the word.

The neighborhood came and said, we deserve better for our families, for our children and for our neighborhood as a whole.

And this is how we think we should do it.

And we listened for a very long time.

It was barely anything.

We had like a wooden playground set and there wasn't too much going on.

We had a few activities going over here on in the housing authority building, but mostly it was just like that cold, dried up park that nobody really went to was kind of deserted back here.

There was a handful of murders that happened in the neighborhood.

It was a lot of kids and it all really hit close to home because we all grew up with each other.

And if you didn't know each other personally, you knew somebody that knew that person.

So it just it hit really hard for us.

But in the instance of a place like Fremont Park or Kelly Park, the neighborhood really embraced it.

They were all in they came in to the table and said, this is what we need and this is why we need it.

We're asking for it.

So six of us came together who have known each other forever and decided to take back our neighborhood and take our park back and say, you know, this is our home.

As part of an awareness effort, the Fremont Youth Foundation held a back to school block party, which, along with providing a good time for the kids, delivered a strong message of stop the violence.

As a direct result of neighborhood involvement, Fremont Park received 147 thousand dollars worth of upgrades that reflected the community's needs, and identity improvements included a full basketball court, a memorial bench, refreshed playground equipment and a new splash pad designed to represent the Marquette Dragons.

We want the community to be a part.

We want them to take ownership.

We want them when they walk into the facility to feel like it's not just belong to the city of South Bend South Bend, but it belongs to us.

Similar to Fremont Park, Kelly Park on the near north east side is a small neighborhood park that had fallen into disrepair.

It was, you know, somewhat of an eyesore.

A lot of people perceived it.

We had a neighbor who was elderly, had told me not to go to the park.

They said it was dangerous.

The renovation idea was led by a group of youngsters from the neighborhood who put together a plan for what they wanted to see.

Kelly Park become had kids for the Robinson Community Learning Center.

Draw up a plan and bring it to the mayor's office and say, this is what we want for our park.

How can you say no to that?

And we actually brought that to the attention of the mayor of South Bend.

Pete Buttigieg at the time and Pete Buttigieg.

He said he would help us inquire about grant money and resources to help rebuild the park as long as people were willing to invest in their time and effort.

So they got like a small grant from the spirt grant program through NRC through the city, and they did a photo voice program and it was to improve the park.

They wanted to put up two basketball hoops.

So from there we like, let's dream bigger, what can we do?

And then you have a group of engaged neighbors, particularly when you look at Beth Sanford and Luella Webster.

Luella, who grows grows up right across the street from the park.

These two women form an amazing partnership, literally knocking on doors and drawing up designs at their kitchen tables to help influence what Kelly Park looks like today.

We went to meetings and we talk and try to recruit people from the community to give resources or money or time and effort to help build this park up.

Ultimately, the neighborhood group succeeded in raising over 250000 dollars worth of financial donations and labor and materials, with the addition of 90000 dollars from the city.

Kelly Parks facelift brought new basketball courts, playground equipment and a pavilion, and everybody was inspired by the children to make an improvement.

And that's that's what's the best thing about it, really.

This is all for the children.

Before we renovated it, I never seen people come as often as I do now.

And it's just a fantastic feeling to know you worked on something and look at it and it's succeeding in the way it does.

People have barbecues Here.

People Just have fun on the basketball court.

Children play on the playground.

We never saw that as often as we do now.

It's just incredible the way the community has embraced these parks as their own.

And I think that's what's going to ensure they're sustainable well into the future, because these are my parks.

These aren't the mayor's parks.

These are our parks.

And people own them from design to implementation to programing.

It'll they'll be well taken care of into the future.

MySBParks and Trails initiative is the single largest investment project in South Bend history, but VPA can't do it alone, nor do they want to.

The overarching strategy is to achieve as much as possible through partnerships, whether that meant neighborhood involvement, corporate donations or through cooperation with area institutions.

Pound for pound Seitz Parks, one of our most popular parks in the system.

It's a small park, about a third of an acre, but it's very active and it's full of energy, not only the vibrancy and entertainment that happens there in the whitewater rafting in the Cascades and and all of the water that flows through, but also energy in the fact that it generates electricity throughout its history.

That area has been a series of raceways.

We've got the East race and the West race that generated hydro power to power the manufacturing elements that were adjacent to the river, critical for the city's development.

That's going to happen again.

Yet in this generation, in cooperation with the University of Notre Dame, the city of South Bend transferred their long, unused federal permit to operate a hydroelectric facility on the river, which has not been utilized in over 50 years.

But soon, economically and environmentally sustainable power will be generated, powering nearly 10 percent of the university's electrical needs.

This partnership is really unique because not only is it once again harnessing the power of the river to power our city, but it's a partnership that allows us to build a brand new park.

On top of that asset.

Sites Park is also home to the South Bend River Lights, an interactive illuminated Experience temporarily removed during the construction of the hydro generation facility.

It creates a unique atmosphere of activity and energy.

When we see sites park return, there's going to be a new concert pavilion.

There's going to be a new vending kiosk and restroom facility, new series of connectivities and trails that link places like Howard Park over towards Leeper Park.

and really cement what an urban riverfront should look like in a community like South Bend.

Another one of South Bend parks close to the heart of downtown is Rum Village Park, which provides a forested refuge from city life with unique recreational opportunities.

We've been investing in that property over the past few years.

We've restored the nature center and done some much needed improvements there.

We're really pleased with the ecological program and the environmental kind of educational program that comes out of Rum Village as a wildlife oasis.

The 160 acres of Rum Village offer a tranquil escape from the urban environment with a varied population of wildlife to observe while walking the trails or from the wildlife viewing window at the Parks Nature Center.

One of the neat things about this park is we have over 100 species of birds that either nest or migrate through.

So it's kind of a birder's haven right now for people wanting to see wild birds.

Visitors can take advantage of more energetic activities, such as the aerial adventure course, a great example of the public private partnerships that VPA encourages to generate greater attendance and to offset costs.

Edge Adventures runs the ropes course available to adventure seekers aged seven and above.

So there's a series of of lines that are tethered from one tree to another.

You hooked up in that.

And they have different obstacles on different levels, starting like 20 feet to 30 feet, 40 feet, 50 feet above the ground.

It's for the adventurous and those who are not afraid of of heights.

Reinvestment in the disc golf course has generated a positive response from the Disc Golf community and improvements to the trails, mountain biking paths and the addition of the first full service dog park all contribute to a park Experience that offers a lot of options.

We have the new dog park so you can bring your dogs and you can let them run free inside the confines of the dog park.

We also have a lot of people who hike the Park Road is almost a mile in circumference.

So people hike, people will push the kids in the strollers.

People use this park pretty much from sunup to sundown.

A lot of free things.

Rum Village is very unique property that we could have this kind of natural landscape basically just outside the heart of downtown South Bend.

It's a very unique park that that we're lucky to have that type of acreage preserved and a natural state.

It's a great asset and a great complement to the suite of services that we have.

Another one of the more than 40 parks to receive upgrades through the MySBParks and Trails projects is Pulaski Park, which received more than one million dollars in improvements through private donations, park funds and tax increment financing.

Pulaski parks a really unique park.

It's embedded between a railroad and a couple of busy streets and it's kind of hidden back there.

And when parks are hidden, sometimes they kind of take on this out of sight, out of mind.

And that was true for several of our parks, but no more true for anywhere than than Pulaski.

But also part of what the park meant to the community was also disinvestment and things that were kind of let go.

And for a long time, this park was, for the most part, abandoned, and people had to take care of it for themselves.

And the soccer league that was here, they had to buy their own chalk to chalk the field and to do that themselves.

And so it was also seen is as something that we had to take care of ourselves because the city didn't or couldn't.

Pulaski Park, like so many parks in South Bend, evolved as the city evolved.

It initially was the site of the South Bend foundry where they made a lot of the parts, stored a lot of the parts for the Studebaker plants.

Originally a community of largely Polish and European ethnicities serving the manufacturing sector, the neighborhood began changing as the Studebaker's and other companies left the area.

But when a lot of migrant farmers were working in this area and staying in this area, this was the neighborhood where they would stay and eventually the neighborhood that many would settle into.

Some of the original kind of traditional Mexican stores and restaurants and the community were right right here alongside this park.

And so this was a place, a congregation place, where the kind of original Latin American, specifically Mexican immigrants that came to this area, VPA, in service to their stated goal of creating community, took steps to ensure that the park would reflect the new character of the neighborhood.

As a landscape architect there really want to lean in on the concept of meeting people where they are, and that's both meeting people at critical mass events.

So we did a number of of pop ups at events like the best Wednesday ever here on the West Side to make sure that we could see a lot of people and get a lot of people's feedback on it and then also meeting people in their spaces.

Pulaski Park is basically a brand new park, over one million dollars worth of investments.

We've got irrigated soccer fields, new splash pad, new playground, new pavilion, new restroom facility, new parking lot, new signage.

It's basically a brand new park.

And it's all improvements that the neighbors were asking for.

Everything was very community informed.

And so our landscape architect took it upon himself to go join the soccer league, the Latino Soccer League that plays out there and try and get the input that we had to earn the right to be heard and be where the people were.

My Spanish is pretty mediocre, but there's something universal about seeing a pothole on a field and having that point to see.

This is something that we need to fix or this is something we need to address.

And in that way, we built a lot of rapport with the community and and then we had more people coming out at such a beloved park.

It always has been, whether it's the Polish migrants who initially helped found the park or now the black and Latino community that use the park so much, it's it's a beloved park.

So having that feedback was really important to us.

Yeah.

You know, this park is really interesting in terms of its identity.

Its name, Pulaski Park.

And this was a Polish neighborhood originally.

And we still kept the name Pulaski Park, but it's now a predominantly Latino neighborhood.

And we wanted to capture that flavor here in the park as well.

So the park board voted unanimously to rename the fields a new pavilion in honor of Dolores Huerta, an amazing civil rights activist.

And so it's important, again, that we capture the flavor of the community and every single one of these projects, which was particularly important for for two reasons.

One, there's just not a lot of Latino representation in the physical landmarks themselves.

And two, there's only two parks named after women in the city.

So having both of those within this process was was really meaningful not only for the users of the park, but the community as a whole.

It's I was really excited when this became the Dolores Huerta pavilion that they dedicated in their honor because Dolores Huerta was part of the movement, you you could say that she was part of the labor rights movement, the farmworkers movement, and at the same time instrumental behind the Chicano movement.

The Chicano rights movement.

Like I remember when we did the groundbreaking ceremonies like that, like we had some players from the soccer league come and help with the groundbreaking.

Right.

It wasn't just the mayor and the developers and the owners of the concrete company.

It was it was people who are going to play who have been playing at the park and who are going to play at the park.

The improvements to the park have revitalized this property to better serve the community and provide them a safe, inviting environment for recreation.

I'm proud of the city of South Bend when the city took the time to invest in this park.

And the message to me was that the city cares and the city was able to make an investment in their community because a lot of times we would see that there is investment being made in downtown, are investment being made where there's money, and for them to be able to do it here and show that it mattered.

The second oldest park in the city is Leeper Park., designed by nationally famous landscape architect and city planner George Kessler.

As a result of his expertize in foresight, Leeper Park.

remains one of the most visited parks in the city and also one receiving a major facelift.

So we're really fortunate to have George Kessler's parks and Boulevard plan heavily influence our park system, and it's nowhere more recognizable than at leeper Park.

Leeper Park.

has a really unique network of trails that go right along through it and along the riverfront in its early years.

The park was home to a zoo, as well as a bandshell for concerts, an ornate fountain, formal rose garden and a duck pond.

We really wanted to capture that kind of historic flavor.

The more formalized gardens and Leeper Park.

becomes that more pastoral, reflective and contemplative style of park with the formalized network of paths and trails and gardens.

Of course, the newly renovated and restored Studebaker fountain were grateful that that fountain has returned to South Bend and right into the park system.

The arrival of the resurrected and restored Studebaker fountain brings new energy and excitement to the space originally donated by the Studebaker family in 1986 and installed at Howard Park.

The illuminated bronze fountain had since fallen into disrepair, some parts sold as scrap and other parts lost to history.

Leeper really felt like it was wanting to be something that had an iconic feature in it that was period appropriate.

And so the Studebaker Fountain was a great fit and it arrived back to South Bend the the same manner in which it originally arrived in South Bend through the generosity of the community.

It was a donation from the Studebaker family and eventually it got lost in history of South Bend.

As the story goes, it was recently rediscovered and restored by a volunteer committee and through out the generosity of a lot of donors.

We were very excited to celebrate that.

And it now adorns Leeper Park in a grand fashion.

The Studebaker fountain that is over my left shoulder right here is here today because of the efforts of our community and fundraisers and.

People going out of their way saying, I want that space to be beautiful.

And so it has to be carried by both the public individually and the city as a driving agent, Leeper Park.

has undergone a dramatic transformation.

And the Studebaker fountain is a conspicuous feature, but it does not overshadow the many additions and improvements to the rest of the park.

Notably, the renovated Leeper Park.

Tennis Center features 14 fully lit tennis courts, men's and women's locker rooms, an air conditioned snack bar and clubhouse and is one of the best tennis facilities in northern Indiana.

The newly constructed state of the art Leeper Park.

playground has been built to be fully accessible, so children and caregivers of all abilities can play together.

And in keeping with the historically formal nature of the park, the Rose Garden has been restored with the help of a local group of volunteer amateur botanists from a state of considerable disrepair.

The volunteers who have made this park.

And even though I mean we started with a dozen or more volunteers that did the original design, and cutting out these beds weren't beds.

They were just grass with lots of weeds in them and maybe a rosebush.

Now, we we dug all of that out, removed all of that, put in new mulch and new bushes five years ago, six years ago.

And we started it was at a very low point.

We had probably maybe twenty five roses that were halfway alive at that time as opposed.

We have almost a hundred and eighty rose bushes.

Now, I think what people get when they have a chance to walk through the garden, they get a sense of peace and tranquility and quiet.

And that's what I want for for this park.

Peace and quiet tranquility.

One of the controversial changes to Leeper Park.

was the elimination of the much loved duck pond, a fixture of Leeper Park.

for more than 100 years, however, the pond had become an unhealthy environment for the Ducks, as well as for visitors, as the water was overly contaminated with E. coli and other bacteria.

The bottom line is, regardless of any maintenance regimen that we may have applied or not applied to the duck pond, we knew that it wasn't healthy for the waterfowl, nor was it healthy for the environment in its place.

We created a grand overlook at the riverfront designed for people to be able to observe wildlife and ducks waterfowl in their native habitat where they want to be and where they'll be healthier.

Right on the riverfront.

Partygoers who enjoyed the duck pond will be happy to know that the Leeper Park.

ducks were humanely captured, treated for infections and relocated to the zoo at Potawatomi Park, another key piece of the MySBParks and Trails project.

Potawatomi Park is I called the kitchen sink of our public park system, if you ask the kid to create his dream park, he or she would say, Oh, I think it would probably have, you know, a playground.

Maybe you would have two playgrounds and it would have a swimming pool and it would also have a splash pad.

And maybe you have a place for concerts and a place for picnics and you, oh, you know, you should put a zoo there and, you know, you could go on and on and on.

We have athletic fields, you name it.

It probably exists in Potawatomi Park.

In reality, Potawatomi Park is more of a collection of parks.

The primary section consists of a wooded park with trails and pavilion, the recently completed universally accessible playground and splash pad.

The community built Kids Kingdom Playground and an outdoor performance arts pavilion.

There is also the Potawatomi Conservatory, also known as the Measle Elison Conservatory, housing tropical plants, a waterfall and garden, and is available for gatherings such as weddings, graduations and meetings and perhaps most important, the Potawatomi Zoo and ethically managed facility that concentrates on animal welfare, education and conservation.

I see the zoo playing an integral role within the Parks Department because it's all kind of related.

You know, when you think about the parks and getting outside and being exposed to nature, whether it's a hiking trail, whether it's the national park coming to the zoo and learning about conservation, it's all quality of life initiatives.

And I know a good community has a good zoo.

And it's it's a real reflection of the community.

If you've got a state of the art facility that's doing the right thing when it comes to animal welfare and the mission that they're moving forward towards, it's really a reflection of that community, the zoos in better shape than it has been probably ever the brand new entry and educational facilities, all of the upgrades that have been done to ensure compliance with the their accreditation standards, the animal welfare, the educational components that are in and out of the zoo.

It's just incredible what they've been able accomplished.

As everyone knows, zoos are modernizing.

What you see today is not the zoo that it used to be.

You know, when you look back in the old pictures of bears and chain link cages, you know, husbandry, all that kind of stuff that we really focus on today.

And welfare wasn't really probably the big focus.

It was more about, you know, letting people see animals that when you look at some of the old pictures, you can see how the old zoos work and how big of strides we've made since that time.

The zoo is just expanding.

And I think when people think small zoo in a small town, there may be thinking, you know, chickens and ducks and don't realize that we are in a state of the art facility with some pretty exotic animals.

I'll tell you what, this zoo is growing at a rate that's just unbelievable.

We brought in a rhino this past year.

We have lions.

It's one of the best unkept secrets.

But we're actually broke ground on a giraffe exhibit.

So hopefully by twenty, twenty one, we're going to have Giraffe Feeding a huge savannah.

Attendance has been breaking records.

Private support has been higher than ever.

And we're really proud of the zoo and kind of looking forward to the future.

This zoo, with even the last four or five years, it's just transformed and people are recognizing it and and we're starting to see that support.

So, you know, I just I really encourage people to come to the zoo and see these changes.

Changes have also been happening at Boehm park with master plan projects completed on the park entrance, new restrooms, benches, grills and tables, as well as upgrades to the playground, which features equipment specifically designed for children with special needs.

We had a staff member from our facilities and grounds team out, I think, painting picnic tables at Boehm Park, and we had a sign out that said, hey, this park's due for an upgrade.

If you have ideas, call this phone number or go to this website.

And so I just asked the painting crew if it was possible to get a handicapped swing to replace one of the swings that were there, because there were several hooks were swings were set up and the painting crew said that they would, you know, put an inquiry for me and that someone would get back to me.

Our staff member took the time to listen and hear about Hope's special needs.

And I was so surprised I had got that afternoon I'd gotten an email from a gentleman, I think his name is Nick Gaul from the parks.

And he said that they were very into doing some park renovations and that would I be willing to, you know, give my input of what would help to have some handicapped, accessible things at the park.

And what we were able to design is a playground that has all kinds of sensory play designed specifically to accommodate children like hope and in fact, hope got to pick out the color of the playground.

And she wanted her favorite color purple.

And so I was super excited because I was just hoping to get like one handicapped swing in our neighborhood.

But I had no idea that it would blossom into what it has.

We were just asking for one like handicapped swing and instead they revamped the whole park because they knew that there was several handicapped children in the neighborhood.

My daughter Hope loves coming to the park now.

Now, there's not just one thing that she could do.

She used to be able to sit on a little horse merry go round that only had one horse that wasn't broken.

And that's what we would we would do when we would come.

And now she can go from thing to thing the thing and just play.

And she has such freedom just running about and then choosing what she wants to play on.

Among the largest parks in the VA system are three historic golf courses that have stood the test of time and provide South Bend residents with well maintained parkland style golf courses for all ages and skill levels.

From a golf course standpoint, we have some beautiful golf courses.

We've got the Erskine and Elbel, which is beautiful.

We've got Studebaker, which is a gem, and a lot of people don't know about it.

But it's a great par three course to play.

The oldest course in the park system is the easy playing nine holes.

Studebaker course, a South Bend fixture for more than 100 years.

It was also a unique piece of property to the city where it was owned by the Studebaker family, a much larger parcel and had been divided up by that.

Twenty nine acres that Studebaker sits on now was originally the Studebaker family's land, and they donated to the city for a park and then converted into a golf course in 1990.

As a par three course, Studebaker lends itself well to teaching young players the game, and the VPA plan embraced that to expand interest in the sport of golf.

We saw a decline in some of the youth participation in golf, with other sports taking place or video games or other things that are becoming more important, it seemed like.

So it was a unique opportunity for us as a city to offer a program which would get the kids back in April of last year.

Now kids play free, so anyone under the age 18, they could come out and play golf as Studebaker We'll provide the club, the tee, the ball and even on certain days, partnered with the first year of Michiana offering free lessons for all the youth.

The whole Erskine golf course occupies a 90 acre parcel of land south of the city near the intersection of Routes 20 and 31 opened in 1925.

It is South Bend first 18 hole course and offers unique challenges on its par 70 layout.

I'm pretty much known for our part the out here.

I would say there probably as a whole, probably the most challenging of probably anywhere that you go play in the area.

And then number 10 is kind of our signature hole.

You know, years ago we had a back to where it would play as long as like six hundred twenty five yards at one point in time.

I think it's an invaluable asset to the community, especially at this time with the virus where people can't do a lot of other things, but they certainly can still play golf.

And I think it's been a lifesaver.

Like the Studebaker course, the Erskine property is also, not surprisingly, part of the Studebaker legacy.

Long story short, Mr. Erskine Albert Erskine, who is the CEO of Studebaker, at the time I donated this piece of property that was their family farm at the time.

As part of the park's strategic plan, the Erskine clubhouse received a one point two million dollar upgrade to enable year round use of the clubhouse for events.

The original structure was part of the Erskine farm.

It's actually not a farm it with the animal livestock barn where the animals had stayed and it's now currently the Erskine clubhouse.

I think the fact that we moved the golf works that it's a lot more user friendly.

The fact we've got a banquet facility now that we can use in the off season and even during the the season itself is just going to enhance what we had before.

The third jewel in the South Bend golf course crown is the tree lined rolling grounds of Elbel Park.

It is the largest of the three golf properties where I Studebaker's twenty nine acres and Erskine sits on a ninety acre parcel.

Elbel sits out in the county.

It's a three hundred and thirteen acre piece of property that's surrounded by mud.

Lake Mud Lake is actually what is known as a Kettle Lake, a depression left by receding glaciers and is a unique aspect of the Elbel golf Experience from what I was told, that it's one of the largest kettle lakes is actually accessible to the public in the mid-west area.

So most of them are still on farmlands are private property.

So to have this unique feature at a golf course is really exciting.

Few cities the size of South Bend can boast of the diverse nature of our public golf courses, offering residents the opportunity to play at a variety of well-kept courses at a reasonable price.

It provides a great variety for our city to have three municipal golf courses and to offer the variety that we have.

It's unbelievable to think that you can come and play three different courses and really hone in on three different areas of your game and each one of them.

When you think of public parks, you don't generally think of baseball stadiums as being part of that category.

However, the South Bend Cubs at Four Winds Field is one of our great public private partnership success stories.

I think a lot of people don't realize that Four Winds Field is actually one of the parks of our local park system.

And I think that's one of the things that has been very good for us.

Working with Aaron Perry and his crew is they truly recognize this is one of their parks.

It's obviously probably one of the most visible and most attended parks Andrew Berlin, invested about nine million dollars into the stadium itself, which is a city owned asset.

So, again, I think that's where the partnership really works with the city.

As part of the public private partnership for Wins Park is known, of course, as a baseball stadium.

But the use of the park goes way beyond what happens on the diamond.

Know, a couple of years ago as a Cubs affiliate, we drew three hundred and fifty four thousand plus.

We're doing an extra 10 to 15 events a year, you know, concerts, comedy shows, craft beer events.

So we are utilizing the stadium for more than just baseball.

And I think that really lets the community know it's it is a community asset.

It's really about let's just be a place where the community come out, enjoy themselves and kind of get away from the daily grind.

And Four Winds Field has become the happiest place in the South Bend as the happiest place in South Bend.

Four Winds Field occupies a unique spot in the venues, parks and arts milieu.

But you might be surprised to learn that another unique location, perhaps not quite as happy, also falls within the collection of South Bend parks.

City Cemetery is one of the first public spaces that is owned by the city of South Bend given to the city in 1831, first internment happens in 1832, give or take with an American Revolutionary War veteran, Peter Roof.

The South Bend City Cemetery sits on a serene spot of land between West Colfax and La Porte Avenues, a quiet refuge from the commotion of city life to escape the industrialized city.

The citizens would often just go walk around the cemetery, which to some people today seems a little strange.

But it is a beautiful space if you if you step back and sort of soak it in.

The interesting thing about city cemetery and cemeteries in general is that you're trying to decouple it from the idea of a graveyard.

You have meandering pathways.

You've got these really robust canopy trees and then just gorgeous, ornate monuments, not just headstones, but a large obelisks and tall mausoleums.

And so it creates a unique walking experience.

As part of the VPA five year plan, City Cemetery has received a new cast iron entry gate, restoration of headstones and the creation of a QR code guided tour.

South Bend City Cemetery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is an exceptional memorial to the heritage of South Bend and its early residents.

The venues, Parks and Arts five year plan is nearly complete, with 2022 being the fifth year of the undertaking.

Most of the projects have been completed and the rest are nearing fruition, and then and then the VPA will continue to look for ways to improve and add greater value to the citizens of South Bend.

What we did in less than five years time is figure out a way to finance over 60 million dollars worth of improvements throughout the entire park system without raising taxes and without adding any new taxes and with grand community support.

That's a story for the ages.

This isn't going to stop as we go forward.

We know there's a lot more investment we need to do into our neighborhoods and into our parks and trails.

So we'll continue to refine the highest priority ones and find the funds to make those happen.

The fact is, a third of all of these projects were paid for by non city of South Bend taxpayer dollars.

These were grants.

These were partnerships.

These were private donations and corporate donations.

That really, for me, underscores how important people feel these parks are, that they contributed their own money to seeing these parks evolve.

That's what the MySBParks and Trails program is all about, this historic investment across the city.

The range of park offerings in the South Bend area calls into question what a park actually is, from golf courses to baseball stadiums, community centers, swimming pools, cemeteries or neighborhood parks.

What really defines a park is what people get from it.

Parks are our community.

This is where people come together and join together from different walks of life.

And this is what children remember and think about when they think about their hometown.

It's therapeutic in a way, for me, and that's why I like to continue to come out here.

It's beautiful.

I like to be outdoors and it benefits me mentally.

A neighborhood without a park, it's just not the same.

I would say that parks are a lifeline that connects the community.

Parks are fun and special places where memories are made parks are community.

That's where you live and enjoy.

And it brings happiness to our lives, regardless of where you're from, your background, who you know or don't know what types of means you have or don't have.

These are truly spaces for everybody in our community.

Anybody should be able to enjoy a park.

South Bend parks truly a place for everyone.

South Bend Parks reconnecting a community has been brought to you by our title sponsors, the Robbie and Pamela Rask family, supporting the history and preservation of the South Bend region.

Mel Hall, Mel is proud to support this WNIT production, celebrating the revitalization of our parks, additional funding provided by.

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