Friday, July 5, 2013

Get outside & play with Coca-Cola's #TakeItToThePark

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by She Speaks and Coca-Cola.





We love the park. And when I say WE I mean all of us, yes that most certainly includes myself. I love watching the kids have fun and seeing their smiling faces brings me joy. Knowing that I can sit for a minute and relax while they go play to their hearts content is an truly awesome thing. And something a park adds extra value to because you're almost never the only person there. It's very rare occasion for to be no other families also at the park doing the same exact thing. One of our favorite parks out here is what the kids call "The Wolf Park" but to us adults it is more commonly known as Reeves Park. One part of the playground has a wolf head hence them calling it the Wolf Park. I didn't snap a photo of it this time but I have in the past. It's actually pretty neat. Another thing I LOVE about this park is it's all wood. Well excluding the slides and swing set seats of course.


Prior to moving here and going to this park I had never before seen a park made entirely of wood. Heck I don't think I had ever seen a park made with any wood before. Everything was all metal or wood. So this park is extra special for that reason. Also it is completely fenced in. There are two main sections to the playground. The older kids and the wee kids. Each of them are fenced in (you can see the fence in the background in the photo above). There are two entries/exits. Both on the same side of the playground so you can't miss if your child runs out. Having that little added security feature is really important to me since my youngest is still a bit of a runner. One last thing I'll mention....TREES! A park is not a park if it doesn't have trees. They provide many functions but most importantly on an extremely hot day they provide shade! For all these reasons and more is why I love taking the kiddos to this local park. Since the first time we went we knew it would become a favorite park of ours and even though we've been countless times it's still awesome each time we go there.

Coca-Cola recently introduced the America is Your Park campaign. The idea behind the campaign is to help bring people together to improve the health of their communities. And with the start of the campaign the hunt is on to find Americas Favorite Park! Now here's the special part, the park that wins 1st place will receive the title of Americas Favorite Park AND a $100,000 recreational grant which can be used for improvements to the park. The 2nd  place park will receive $50,000 3rd place $25,000 and the there will be a $15,000 wildcard grant that will be awarded to a randomly chosen park from the remaining 25 spots on the leaderboard! Another thing I love about this campaign is anyone can put together their own park meet-up and make things happen! If you are interested in doing your own meet-up but need a little help they put together a great checklist filled with ideas on how to make your outdoors day a success. You can view the page here.

Here is a brief video explaining more about the campaign.


This is the part where I shamelessly ask a personal favor of you all. The park that is currently in the lead with 147628 of the votes (as of July 4th) is the the Veterans Memorial Park at 1900 SE 4th Street, Moore, OK. During the May 20th tornado it was destroyed. I would love to see the park rebuilt not just for the children but for the city of Moore as a whole. Moore has a long way to go until it's fully rebuilt and how amazing would it be to start with a place where community comes together to play, interact with each and overall come to have a fun time. Below are a few photos from the Veterans Memorial Park. The first one is a before shot and the second is an after of the same place. Then the following two photos show how the park was completely destroyed.

I received permission from the Veterans Memorial Park to use any photos as I see fit on my post.
To cast your vote in the Coca-Cola’s America Is Your Park campaign visit HERE. To vote for Veterans Memorial Park in Moore, OK you will need to search for the park by name & city. It will not bring it up if you search just by name. You will need to log in to vote but it is a very simple process, you can even log in using your Facebook account! 




Disclosure: This post is sponsored by She Speaks and Coca-Cola. I was provided with a Coca-Cola Park Kit along with a Subway gift card so my family & I could have a fun park day. All opinions included in this post are my own.