You can help Soda Springs City Park win $25,000 - East Idaho News
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You can help Soda Springs City Park win $25,000

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SODA SPRINGS — Soda Springs City Park is just a few clicks away from winning some serious green. People can cast their vote to win the city money for a new splash park.

The State Farm Neighborhood Assist grant program is giving away $25,000. It started out with 2,000 applicants. The numbers have been whittled down to 200, which includes Soda Springs City Park. Now the park just needs enough votes from the community to win.

VOTE HERE

The non-profit organization Friends of the Soda Springs City Park is heading the grant process and is hoping to use the funds to complete projects for the Caribou CommUNITY Playground inside the park.

“The 40 applicants that have the most votes will each get a $25,000 grant. That’s like a million dollars overall,” organization president Laura Lind says.

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Photo courtesy Laura Lind

Lind is hoping to get the word out all across the Gem State as the city park was the only Idaho park selected.

“We needed to get the word out all over Idaho and encourage Idaho’s support,” Lind says. “When it comes to Idaho, we struggle to get these kinds of grants here. We tend to be the underdog.”

Georgia Brown, vice president and treasurer for Friends of the Soda Springs City Park, says the group is honored Soda Springs was selected for this voting contest.

“If we want to continue improving our town and investing in it then I think the more people that vote… I think it can show the support of the community toward bettering our community,” Brown says.

Brown says Lind has been instrumental throughout the parks grand process, and this isn’t Lind’s first time rallying the community to believe in the rejuvenation of the local park and the building of the new Caribou CommUNITY Playground. For the last two years, Friends of the Soda Springs City Park has raised $350,000 to build play structures for kids of all ages and abilities.

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Photo courtesy Laura Lind

“It was around 70-plus years old,” Lind says. “We felt like it needed to accommodate all ages and abilities, meaning our toddlers didn’t have anything age appropriate they could play on. Our children with special needs couldn’t play.”

Lind says initially the organization applied to for a rubber flooring on the playground, but as the playground was built and funded this year, the organization is looking forward to using the money for a new splash park for the community.

“We would really hope to win this grant. We would like to finish our project in full by this next May, and this funding will just take us so much closer to that end goal.”

Voting began Wednesday and will end Aug. 24 at 9:59 p.m. Mountain Standard Time. Click here to vote. You can enter 10 votes to the cause per day.

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