Thank you, News 14, for sharing the news of our Be the Change in Chandler Playground Project with your viewers!

The ABC - A Bench for Caps plastic recycling program in Chandler has already provided two new benches at the Chandler Town Park since it began with efforts by Girl Scout Troop #363 a little more than a year and a half ago. Thanks to the efforts by the Girl Scouts, and individuals in our community and beyond, we continue to collect plastic lids and caps to provide additional site amenities for the park and help keep so much plastic from going to the landfill.
Earlier this year, the Chandler Parks Board decided to use our current caps collection toward the purchase of a wheelchair accessible picnic table for the park; there are no such picnic tables at our parks presently. We are excited to be a part of this project, as it goes along with our mission to improve the quality of life for every resident.
To purchase the picnic table, it takes 1,100 pounds of plastic. We thought we were getting close to this goal, so we enlisted the help of the Ignite Youth Group at Faith Free Will Baptist Church to weigh our collection efforts. We are now at 859.4 pounds, leaving us 240.6 pounds short of our goal.
You can help us meet this goal by saving the plastic lids and caps from all manner of bottles, tubs, canisters, etc. (no fast food drink lids, however); we are also allowed to collect medicine bottles that have the recycling number 2, 4, or 5 on the bottom for this project. Drop-off locations include LNB Community Bank in Chandler, Chandler Town Hall, and Chandler Utilities Maintenance Facility. You may also bring them to one of our upcoming events (Memorial Day Weekend Clean-up at the Park; Lillpop's Used Auto Sales Free Youth Fishing Tournament, or the Hoopla! Hula Hoop-a-thon).
Thanks for all the help so far, and keep saving those lids! This effort is making a difference in your community!

The Hoopla! will begin at 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 4 at the Chandler Town Park (immediately following our Free Youth Fishing Tournament). Check-in for participants who pre-register, and same-day registration will begin at 10:30 a.m. 
​This event is open to all ages, with three divisions: Kids (ages 5 to 12); Young Adults (ages 13-17); and Adults (ages 18 and older). Bring your own hoop, if you have one. If you don’t have one, some will be available for you to use. Individual who continuously hoops for the longest amount of time in each division wins a prize. A prize package will also be awarded to the individual who collects the most donations, turned in at the time of registration/check-in the day of the event. Find complete rules in the Pre-Registration Packet below.
This fundraiser will help us keep our community events free for everyone, while also helping us raise money for our improvement projects at the park (check out our Be the Change in Chandler Playground Project).
Want to give without hooping? No problem! Your tax-deductible contribution can be made via PayPal!
​

When 4 A Better Chandler, Inc. was formed last year, one of our ideas to improve the quality of life for residents was addressing safety concerns and increasing accessibility at the Chandler Town Park. The park encompasses almost 4.5 acres and is within walking distance for more than half of the town's population.

Throughout this past year, we've been working with playground consultants and the Parks Board to come up with a plan for the Town Park to install new playground equipment that would provide safe and accessible play to children of all ages and abilities. The big picture includes a massive cabled climber, three bays of swings, a merry-go-round, ziplines, a roller table, hiding cove, spinner seats, and a dedicated toddler/preschool play area with swings.

We are excited as we work to finalize plans for the first phase of this project, which would create a playground for children ages 2-5. This area includes a piece of equipment that offers developmentally-appropriate challenges for toddlers and preschoolers. With 16 different play activities, kids will develop gross motor, coordination, motor planning, hand-eye coordination, and cooperative play skills. They will also find a couple of musical instrument elements, educational reinforcement of the alphabet and numbers, and visual and tactile sensory stimulation.

Play is a crucial part of early childhood development and education, providing opportunities for problem solving, concentration, development of pre-literacy skills and social learning experiences. Unfortunately, our Town Park is lacking in safe, accessible equipment for this age group, limiting the opportunities for families with young children in our neighborhoods to benefit from this type of play that helps lay the foundation for learning.
​
As we work to get the plans finalized for this important phase of the overall playground project design, we are excited about sharing our vision with the public and developing some fundraising ideas that will allow every person in our community the chance to Be the Change in Chandler. You can make a difference in our community!

4 A Better Chandler, Inc., in its inaugural year, began its work to improve the quality of life for the residents of Chandler by making improvements to the parks, setting up clean-up events for building community pride, and establishing new community events. In 2016, we are building on the success of those free community events and working closely with town officials to kick off a three-phase playground improvement project (more on that to come soon).
Please consider joining us in our efforts to provide events for everyone in the community to enjoy, complete improvements that beautify and/or address safety issues, and in nurturing a cooperative community spirit among different organizations, town agencies, and residents.
Below is our 2016 Schedule of Events.

We have been working closely with the Chandler Parks Board to facilitate additional improvements and address safety concerns at the Chandler Town Park. Through this cooperative effort, we are re-working a plan to build new playground equipment and tackle drainage problems at the park to support a larger playground build for the future. This ties in with our goal to create an inclusive playground for children of all ages and abilities.
Last year, we worked with the Parks Board to resurface the basketball court, paint goal lines and goal posts, and replace the backboards. In addition, we created some landscaping at the entrance to the park, repaired and painted picnic tables (a couple of times), and helped keep the park cleaned up.
Following those efforts, the town invested some money to renovate the bathrooms at the park, installing new partitions, doors, and lighting to provide additional privacy and address safety issues. They also have worked to remove some of the older, unsafe playground equipment.
The newly-appointed Parks Board has decided to continue our A Bench for Caps program, and will be purchasing an ADA-compliant picnic table instead of a bench. We will need 1,100 pounds of plastic to make the purchase, and we believe we are very close to this goal; we will be having a weigh-in event soon to gauge our progress. (You can find out more about this program here.)
All of this has moved the Town of Chandler toward improving the quality of life for our residents, improving safety at our parks, and providing much-needed upgrades for the community to enjoy. 4 A Better Chandler, Inc. is proud to be a part of this change, and thankful for a supportive community who has shown up ready to work when it's time to put our plans into action.
We invite you to join us in being a part of this movement to create a better place for our families to live, work, and play, by coming out to our annual Memorial Day Weekend Park Clean-up Day on Sunday, May 29, from 2-4 p.m. We will have bottled water for volunteers, and all the materials and supplies will be provided; just show up ready to work!
We will be pressure-washing the playground equipment, painting the bathrooms and picnic tables, picking up trash around the park, and tackling any other small repairs/maintenance jobs as needed.
In conjunction with the clean-up event, we are having a chalk art contest for children, with prizes awarded; so, plan to bring the whole family. Everyone can help make a difference in our community!
Here are some photos from last year's clean-up day event: