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Roseland Park has only a few neglected and unsafe pieces of equipment left on which children can play. Weeds have overgrown and devoured the hillside that is the backdrop for the once loved playground. Yet this park in the city of Jamestown has not been forgotten by Paula Hofgren.

A SAFETY HAZARD TO CHILDREN

Mrs. Hofgren, a resident near Roseland Park for 45 years, has a passion to restore the playground to a safe and fun place for children to play once again.

The park once boasted a skating rink which is now long gone, tennis courts which have fallen into disrepair and an unsafe playground. Unaware of the dangers that await at the playground, neighborhood children play on the outdated equipment. For some children, Roseland Park Playground is the only place they have access to if they want to play outside.

Area baseball, football and cheerleading teams use the fields at Roseland Park to practice and hold their games.

ONE WOMAN'S MISSION

Paula Hofgren has been on a mission to restore the playground to its former glory. The park, located on Fluvanna Avenue, has existed since the early 1900s. Many years have passed since the park's ice skating rink was a draw to people hundreds of miles away. Once enjoyed by people of all ages, the park has since been mostly abandoned as people visit parks with more modern equipment.

"When I went with my church mission group down to Louisiana to do Hurricane Katrina cleanup for a week, during that Easter time, I came back really inspired and thought I could do something in own neighborhood," Mrs. Hofgren said.

Since 2007, Mrs. Hofgren has put in time and effort to make the park desirable to children once again. In her effort to raise $125,000, she has organized area parents, spoken with local legislators and encouraged area business leaders to help with the fundraising challenge.

"I spend so much time on this project because the children need a place to play," she said.

Mrs. Hofgren, who moved into her home across from the park with her husband after they got married, watched her children play at the park when they were young. To her remembrance, the same equipment is there today that sat on the 23rd Street side of the park. She believes the equipment is at least 20 years old, if not older.

"I think it is a safety concern," Mrs. Hofgren said. "I don't want to complain too much and have them take it away from the kids."

Mrs. Hofgren took her granddaughter to the park to play and she wasn't impressed. Other parks are more than a mile away, leaving area children with no other options.

She took into consideration the increasing concern for lack of exercise in schools and inactivity because of all the electronic equipment available that take up the attention of children.

"There is no real place for families to exercise," she said.

She said there are a lot of low-income families on her side of town and she thought they deserved a playground as good as Allen and Bergman parks.

Area Little League teams and youth football teams play at the park and children from all over the city are at the games playing on the equipment. An update to the park would benefit all city children, she says.

Mrs. Hofgren said that since the city went in and cleaned up where tennis courts were and removed the brush, people have been using it for a parking lot.

A STUDENT CONNECTION

Rebecca Nelson, whose father is the park's caretaker, brought in the idea for the Roseland Park Project.

"Roseland Park was a part of my childhood in many ways. To my brothers and I, it was and still is known as 'dad's park,'" Ms. Nelson said.

"My father, Bruce Nelson, has been the caretaker at Roseland Park for over 15 years now. He's taken great pride in maintaining the cleanliness of the park as well as the condition of the ball fields," she said. "I remember summers as a little girl begging my dad to go to work with him so I could play on the ladybug and have a whole tennis court to myself. My favorite memory of Roseland Park is probably all the memorabilia I've collected over the years from people's 'unclaimed items.'"

"I always thought Roseland had the coolest and most unique playground equipment, but over the years the equipment became unsafe for children. This makes me sad, because I don't want people to think it's my dad's fault. He's always given his best to that park and if they let him, he probably would've built new playground equipment himself. This is why I'm thrilled that this Playground Project exists, and I'm eager to see the end result. I know this new playground will bring more people to utilize Roseland's amenities. Then all of my father's hard work will not go unnoticed."

WORKING ACROSS GENERATIONAL LINES

A group of students at Jamestown Business College are putting forth an effort to help Mrs. Hofgren reach her goal to get a new playground built for the children of Jamestown.

Gretchen Lindell, Jamestown Business College teacher, is working with her Web development class this term to create and design a Web site for the Roseland Park Playground Project.

"It is hard not to get involved when Paula is so passionate about this cause," Ms. Lindell said.

The Web site development for business class and the Web-based marketing classes are working together to develop the Web site to inform the community about Mrs. Hofgren's project. This is a cross-listed course - combining two classes in one. It is a combination of marketing students and IT (information technology) classes.

The scope of the class is getting the students to work together as a team.

"That's what it's going to be like in the business world," said Ms. Lindell. "They have to interact with the marketing people. This course traditionally seeks out community interests to look for people who need Web sites."

There are 16 students involved in the project. They are developing the Web site, a blog and Facebook page. The Web site will go live Tuesday and will provide information regarding the restoration project, upcoming fundraising events, volunteer sign-up and other items of interest. The Web address is www.RoselandPlayground.org.

"There is going to be a video on YouTube as well," said Ms. Lindell.

Mrs. Hofgren is asking the community to submit personal stories about their own experiences at Roseland Park Playground. Stories may be submitted to Ms. Lindell directly at gretchenlindell@jamestownbusinesscollege.edu, or directly to the blog which is currently up at roselandparkplayground.blogspot.com/.

The class looks for nonprofits and community organizations and Ms. Lindell has students come in with ideas. Rebecca Nelson brought in the idea for the Roseland Park Project.

"Sometimes students pick rather big organizations, but it's rather nice to pick a small one because it's easier to get decisions made where you have a smaller group to work with," said Ms. Lindell. "Groups that are smaller let you be quite creative."

STILL A LONG ROAD AHEAD

"I'm trying to come up with some fundraisers," Mrs. Hofgren said.

They will be listed on the Web site as upcoming events. She encourages anybody interested in working on the committee to contact her at rhofgren@stny.rr.com.

"We have our ups and downs," Mrs. Hofgren said, regarding her fundraising efforts. "We've raised about $22,000 so far. We have a long way to go yet."

Mrs. Hofgren said that they have applied for several grants and she is attending a seminar on how to fill them out with the right information needed. Many applications have been denied in part due to the economy and "because of Paterson's slashing funds here and there."

Nevertheless, she is undeterred in her efforts to acquire funding for the park and keeps applying for grants.

She was turned down by the Gebbie Foundation because, according to the letter she received: "Your request, unfortunately, falls outside the scope of our current guidelines for grant making."

"If it takes me till I croak, I will keep working on that," Mrs. Hofgren said.

So far, she has received a grant from the Community Foundation in the amount of $6,120, $1,000 from Wal-Mart and $2,000 from Sam's Club. The Jamestown Bowling Company holds an annual charity golf tournament and gave their proceeds one year for almost $3,000 to the Roseland Park project.

Mrs. Hofgren is currently working on a letter to send to businesses letting them know that they can help by purchasing a piece of equipment and have their name put on a plague at the park.

"I would encourage anybody who has that same type of interest in children to come along and help," Mrs. Hofgren said.