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5 years later, a debt of gratitude

By Staff | Sep 25, 2016

More than 200 people turned out over a week ago to help celebrate the long-awaited opening of Legacy Playground – New Hampshire’s first all-accessible playground for kids and adults of all abilities.

It was the kind of event that makes even the most cynical among us feel good about our community – a celebration of so many people and businesses coming together to do something good within the city without any direct benefit in return.

The large crowd of people who showed up to celebrate the opening didn’t come close to matching how many people actually got involved in supporting this project. Nor did the 30-minute ceremony come close to representing the monumental amount of time and effort that this project required.

What had been expected to be a fairly easy project that a group of business leaders wanted to do for the city instead turned into a five-year civics and politics lesson for those generous business leaders, as well as a test of their commitment to do good despite sometimes deeply perplexing obstacles that they faced along the way.

As someone who strongly supported this project and the tremendous benefits it will provide many of our city’s families with kids who might have heretofore not ever been able to truly enjoy a playground, I am fiercely proud of the five years of commitment that this small group of business leaders gave to this project.

For those who don’t know the individuals who comprised this small group, allow me to share with you a sampling of who they are.

This group of approximately 20 individuals was made of several small business owners born and raised here in Nashua.

One of them, Eric Brand, has a child of his own with special abilities and therefore personally understood the positive impact this playground could have on so many other families like his. Eric took over his family business from his father and donated hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of services/time/materials to make this project happen.

Others in this group are in managerial positions at larger companies across Nashua.

Eric Carlson is the facilities manager at Oracle and is responsible for any property and facility acquisitions across New England. He spends 60-plus hours weekly at his job and still found the time over the last five years to leverage Oracle’s support and other resources to help make this project happen.

Kim Reagan is another member of this group who was a driving force in securing financial support from her company’s foundation to support this playground.

Others in this group are employees at nonprofit agencies across greater Nashua, dedicating their professional careers to supporting our community’s social fabric.

Tricia Casey, formerly of the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Nashua, exemplifies those in this group who would work eight to 10 hours a day at their nonprofit employer and then find time in the evenings and weekends to help organize the fundraising effort that went into this project.

None of these individuals in this group of 20 were required by their employer to dedicate five years to this playground. None of them will profit from the playground’s creation and installation. Most of them will never even personally share in the experience of enjoying the playground equipment.

It would have been so easy for them to cancel the project after they started facing obstacles along the way. Most of us likely would have given up after the first year, let alone four more years. Most of us would have said it wasn’t worth the hours of sitting at City Hall on weeknights and even on Saturdays on a couple of occasions.

Yet, this group did all that.

The individuals in this group will likely remain unknown to most of us. Yet, their dedication and commitment to this project is exemplary of the kind of community spirit our city can pride itself upon. It’s this kind of community spirit exemplified by this group that is one of the factors leading to Nashua being included once again as one of the best cities in the country in which to live.

To each of those 20 individuals who call Nashua their home or place of work, and who were willing to work so hard to make it a better place with no return benefit to you, we thank you. You truly have helped us move our city forward.

Chris Williams is a former mayoral candidate, and currently a partner at Velocity Performance.

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