New playground at State Park to officially open Sept. 20. 

New playground at State Park to officially open Sept. 20. 

HAMLIN TOWNSHIP — Friends of Ludington State Park is hosting a celebration officially opening the new, highly accessible playground built at the Hamlin Lake beach area of Ludington State Park Thursday, Sept. 20 at 5:30 p.m.  The brief ceremony and ribbon cutting will thank supporters of the more than $200,000 project.

The public is invited to share in the celebration and check out the two-playscape playground designed by Sinclair Recreation with input from the FLSP board, Accessible Mason County advocates Jamie Spore and Shelby Soberalski and the public.

The GameTime equipment was erected during a community build in June. Sidewalks, curbing and surfacing was completed in late summer. Landscaping is in progress. Signage remans to be erected. The playground opened for use late Monday afternoon, Sept. 9.

The project has been more than a year in the making and fills a need at the park, and because of its accessibility, in the community as a whole. It features poured-in-place surfacing that enhances accessibility and safety, as well as ramping so children of all abilities can play together on the playscapes.

“I would like to express my deep appreciation to the hard-working park staff, and the volunteers of Friends of Ludington State Park in making this unique and special playground a reality,” Bob Sasin, FLSP president noted. “We could never have done any of this without the generous donations and commitment of all the donors in our community who supported us and believed in this project. Thank you can never be enough to show our gratitude.”

The project was built with grant support from the Community Foundation for Mason County, the Great Lakes Energy People Fund, the Mason County Growth Alliance Uncommon Spaces program, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and GameTime.

In addition, support from the Ludington Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Pure Ludington Brrrewfest, for which FLSP is the designated charity, was instrumental in helping the project as were the gifts of numerous other local organizations and individuals and park users from out of the area.