Many hands make light work. In Cosmopolis, that isn’t just a saying as many people worked together to turn an old park into something new and modern for everyone.

Linda Springer, a board chair for the nonprofit organization The Friends of Highland Park, described the way the park used to look — with old equipment and other well-worn park features — as “a long-neglected and underutilized neighborhood park,” according to a write-up Springer provided The Daily World.

But Springer, her nonprofit, the city of Cosmopolis, and various other groups and people got involved to give the park that sits in between Franklin and Dundee drives, “a new lease on life.” Soon, the park will be available for public use.

From inspection on Monday morning, the improved Highland Park is clean and it has new playground equipment. Included in the playground equipment are swing sets — complete with an Americans with Disabilities Act-equipped chair that looks more like an actual chair, with a harness, rather than the traditional swing set seat with leg holes. The playground chips are clean, and they provide cushioning for any child who may happen to fall onto it.

The park also has a jungle gym with slides connected to it for more fun. Outside of the play area, two exercise machines sit on the side. And then there are picnic tables with a roof above the tables, just in time for Grays Harbor’s rainy season. There is also a dog waste station complete with bags for when a dog’s got to go.

The Friends of Highland Park, and Parks of Cosmopolis, first got together in 2019 to form a grass-roots group in order to help with the park’s maintenance, according to Springer.

The way Highland Park looked in 2019, which as Springer described, had “some outdated and rusty playground equipment, an old, cracked basketball court, and one piece of climbing equipment,” is now a memory.

While the park had “a lot of uneven open space, with numerous stumps and clumps of grass,” it is now covered with evenly-laid, soft green grass. The play areas, such as the basketball and racquetball court — with retractable racquetball net, has what looks like freshly-painted lines. And the play surfaces are clean and without cracks.

To do such a project took a lot of work, from all angles.

“The Friends of Highland Park donated and purchased plants for the landscaping projects,” she said in the write-up. “One of our members put together all the picnic tables, another completed the benches that were donated by Caskey Industrial Supplies.”

For that, Springer sounded grateful.

“The dedication and arduous work from the group goes beyond anything I have seen in Grays Harbor,” she said. “We had 14 work parties that took place starting in June to date, coordinating up to two dozen or more volunteers to help landscape, lay borders, rake, rake dirt, picking up sticks, rolling the soil, and spreading two 53-foot chip trucks (full) of chips from Cosmo (Specialty Fibers.)”

Since then, members from the nonprofit have watered the “hydroseeded grass areas,” that were supplied by the city of Cosmopolis. To do so much work took a lot of coordination and scheduling, according to Springer. The scheduling of work parties happened through Facebook. The work parties included “citizens, students, and children showing up alongside board members,” the write-up states.

“The work parties even had volunteers from outside Cosmopolis participate in sharing (the) vision of The Friends of Highland Park, and Parks of Cosmopolis,” the write-up states.

It wasn’t just the manual labor that led to the new version of the park. With the help of other committee members, Springer applied for a number of grants to help rejuvenate the park.

The Friends of Highland Park and the city of Cosmopolis raised between $186,000 and $190,000 toward Highland Park’s rebuild through grants, donations and “in-kind” services, the write-up states.

One of the grants received that helped the park’s progress was a $50,000 grant from T-Mobile. Back on Dec. 7, 2021, T-Mobile named the city of Cosmopolis a recipient of T-Mobile Hometown Grant, according to The Daily World. At that event, Cosmopolis City Administrator Darrin Raines said the check was much needed to achieve the goal of making an all-inclusive park in the “Highlands edition.”

Springer told The Daily World on Tuesday that Raines, and Jeff Nations, director of Cosmopolis Public Works, were “wonderful” to work with.

And now, Springer’s vision is coming to life.

The project was also realized through support from Grays Harbor Community Foundation, The Druzianich Family Trust — there’s a sign at the park thanking the family — and Sierra Pacific Industries. Other “important,” donors include Cosmos Specialty Fiber, Caskey Industrial Supplies, Northwest Rock and Bayview Redi Mix, and the city itself.

Springer also thanked Nations, superintendent of Cosmopolis’ Public Works Department, for having “boots on the ground from day one,” and how Nations shared the same vision.

While the work on the park isn’t finished, it’s clean, looks new and clearly is making Spring quite proud.

“Many people have worked tirelessly this last year to see this vision become a reality, and we could not be prouder of what we have accomplished,” Springer said.

Courtesy photo Local residents help rake a large haul of playground chips for the play area at Highland Park. The residents helped spread two 53-foot chip trucks loaded full of chips from Cosmo Specialty Fibers, according to a write-up from Linda Springer, a chairperson from The Friends of Highland Park. Soon, Highland Park will open to the public and be a “community space open to all people and all ages,” Springer said. “Many people have worked tirelessly this last year to see this vision become a reality, and we could not be prouder of what we have accomplished.”