Local park a worthy cause for grant
Sprucing up Dunne Park and promoting a more family-friendly
environment there would go a long way toward improving the safety
and health habits of residents in the downtown-area
neighborhood.
So it comes as great news for the community that the San
Jose-based nonprofit Health Trust has awarded the Hollister Youth
Alliance with a $100,000 grant to go toward improvements at the
park. Those applying for the grant along with the Hollister Youth
Alliance
– which included varying agencies and groups – deserve immense
credit for finding a much-needed funding source from an outside
giver.
Local park a worthy cause for grant
Sprucing up Dunne Park and promoting a more family-friendly environment there would go a long way toward improving the safety and health habits of residents in the downtown-area neighborhood.
So it comes as great news for the community that the San Jose-based nonprofit Health Trust has awarded the Hollister Youth Alliance with a $100,000 grant to go toward improvements at the park. Those applying for the grant along with the Hollister Youth Alliance – which included varying agencies and groups – deserve immense credit for finding a much-needed funding source from an outside giver.
Considering the severe budget difficulties among local governments, it means work can start at Hollister’s oldest and potentially most attractive park – improvements that should help push out a thug element often ruining a long-lost treasure for the rest of the city’s residents who simply don’t feel safe enough to visit. Hollister residents, despite the element often tainting its otherwise comforting attributes, such as tennis courts and barbecue pits, have shown that they do enjoy patronizing the park when special events are held there such as the Dog Days or Hollister, the recent Music in the Park and others.
The youth alliance and its long list of partners – including the city and county, and nonprofits such as the Community Food Bank – are on the right track by treating the grant as a foundation of sorts and setting a course toward larger improvements in the future when more funding is available. There are some basic improvements with which they are moving forward in the short term, including the fixing of bathrooms and installation of functioning water fountains. In the long term, though, the youth alliance and contracted project manager Lisa Faulkner are pulling back and appropriately gathering analysis and local residents’ opinions – on what they would like to see at Dunne Park – to move forward in a thoughtful fashion. They are absorbing all the information and opinions they can before going full steam ahead.
There are endless benefits to improving this well-placed attraction, such as helping to curtail the daunting obesity rate in Hollister and offering healthier nutrition options – the youth alliance is exploring the use of a healthy snack shack – than the street vendors who sell ice cream and other junk food. For that neighborhood in particular, making Dunne Park more family-friendly, with more recreational opportunities, also would foster athletic development in sports for a population that often is left out due to economic circumstances.
Overall, the youth alliance and other organizers have taken on a worthy task, and the community stands to benefit greatly by putting widespread support behind the project.
