16 July 2023
DULUTH Families gathered in Harrison Park on Sunday afternoon to try their hand at climbing up a rock wall, playing lawn games such as giant Jenga and trying to win prizes from relay races as part of Meet in the Park. The annual event was an opportunity for families and neighbors to enjoy healthy activities as a community, according to organizer Jodi Broadwell of Lincoln Park Children and Families Collaborative.
“It’s just about bringing folks together for some social connectedness, free community resources and doing some healthy, fun activities,” Broadwell said. “Lincoln Park is a beautiful area and it is important to build our community in fun, healthy ways.”
The annual event started in 2014 as “Meet in the Street” and was run by St. Louis County before the collaborative took over organization in 2016-17. Previously, the event would shut down Third Street, but it moved to Harrison Park in 2019. Broadwell said the move followed improvements to the park and community center.
“We invested $20,000 in the park and the city released a $90,000 match and did a bunch of work to make improvements, like this sidewalk we’re standing on and the new basketball courts over there,” Broadwell said. “So this is a way to help people connect to the park as well and see what they have in their own neighborhood.”
The event garners a plethora of sponsorships to allow for the events including a bounce house, Zumba, a rock climbing wall, relay races with prizes, arts and crafts to be offered free of charge. Broadwell said the organization also asks residents what they want to see at the celebration and tries to incorporate suggested changes.
“Like the relay races, those were new this year because someone made the suggestion to us last year, and we thought, yeah, absolutely. Sounds like a fun idea,” Broadwell said.
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