Carroll School Playground at Tiger Park

Carroll School Playground Naming

The Carroll School Playground’s naming came about throughout the course of our project. This playground, above all things, is about “community”. It not only serves the Carroll School but the Ward 3 community as a whole. The fact that the Ward 3 community had an urgent need for a safe and accessible playground for its children to play in was the driving factor for this project.

The Carroll School Tiger is the symbol that was used throughout the project. Our fundraising thermometer was a slide that the Tiger was climbing the ladder on to reach its goal. We consistently discussed with the community and the kids how the Tiger was climbing the ladder to help the kids achieve the funds to make their dream playground a reality. At our auction event last November, to incorporate the kids at this adult event, we had the Tiger in all our center pieces. The Carroll School Tiger was the symbol used throughout our fundraising efforts.

A member of our committee and her children came up with the idea having a welcome sign that said “Welcome to The Carroll School Playground at Tiger Park” in July 2007. This welcome sign was a sign intended to welcome our community to our Playground, to show that it isn’t exclusive to only Carroll School students but to welcome all; even those members of the community that may not attend the Carroll School or may not have kids but have nieces or nephews that visit them. We put this out to a vote and the responses were very positive.

The fact that this name was created by the kids was just another unique aspect of our project. Everything we have done, including our playground logo, playground equipment and color choices, our ground breaking, our build day, and many, many other small ways, was all about the kids and what they wanted for their playground. The fact is that the kids wanted this name and it seems a very fitting name for this playground.

Our playground donors and sponsors were fully aware and embraced this aspect of the project. They wanted to support this project due to the kids, because this was a grass roots effort of parents, kids, and a community working towards the goal of providing a safe place to play in their community.