MUSKEGON HEIGHTS, Mich. — On 8th Street, between Hume and Hovey in Muskegon Heights, new life is being breathed into an old park.
The goal is to give kids a positive place to play, in order to reduce crime in the community.
There are four parks in Muskegon Heights, but 8th Street Park is the most centrally located. It has seen a revitalization, unlike anything that's happened there for the better part of the last two decades.
It might not sound like much, but new working irrigation systems at the park are a massive step in the right direction according to community leaders.
“I can tell you, over 30 years, I’ve never seen the water sprinklers out here work,” said local nonprofit leader, Ron Jenkins.
Jenkins works with Lake Hawks, a West Michigan basketball league that works with kids in the inner city, and has a nonprofit wing called the Lake Hawks In Flight Foundation. He's part of the group of people working together to fix up 8th Street Park.
"We'd never seen the bathrooms open," Jenkins said.
Now the bathrooms are operational again— for the first time in 20-something years. It's part of a community push for better in Muskegon Heights.
“We’ve been here renovating and bringing it back to life,” Jenkins said.
The renovations started with new ADA-compliant playground equipment and continued from there.
Now, there are working bathrooms, a new picnic area, new basketball courts and soccer nets.
The work started a few years back.
“Hours, months, days, years, continuously. Lot of work. A lot of collaboration,” Jenkins said.
For Janet Robinson, with the grassroots group Gaining Unity Through Nonviolent Solutions or G.U.N.S., it's reason for constant awe.
“I don’t know if I can even put it into words. Being a kid growing up— coming over to the park, just as an empty park— to see it now..." Robinson said.
It's rewarding work these community leaders know will largely benefit the community as a whole.
“The goal is for everybody to feel that same energy, have that same love, that same passion, that same pride, and want to make things a lot better, that do deter crime,” Robinson said.
Check out our list of community resources available to help in West Michigan.