The Friends Of Prospect Park is a collaboration of four neighborhood groups, the Adams Elementary School, the YMCA and the City of Ypsilanti to participate in the City’s newly developed Adopt-A-Park Program. The group has adopted Prospect Park, a widely used neighborhood park, and purchased signage, arranged and installed new fall protection (mulch) for the playground area, created a wild flower a
rea known as Luna Lake, and scheduled weekly litter patrols and minor maintenance activities. A summer day camp was scheduled. Future projects include painting of the pavilions and restoring the ball field. The Friends of Prospect Park was initiated in April 2009 following the creation of the City’s Adopt-A-Park program. Several meetings of stakeholders were held. The stakeholders consisted of the City of Ypsilanti, Adams Elementary School Math and Science Academy who uses the park as their playground, four neighborhood associations that abut the park (Historic Eastside Neighborhood Association, Prospect Park Neighborhood Association, East Prospect Park Neighborhood Association and the Miles Street Area Neighborhood Association) and the YMCA. Various ideas and projects were suggested to improve and maintain the park. Signage was designed, purchased and installed. Four hundred cubic yards of mulch was purchased and installed at the playground equipment. The site at Luna Lake was prepared and hundreds of flowers were planted and the area was composted and mulched. Weekly litter patrols were scheduled to clean up the park, do graffiti removal and minor maintenance. Pavilion painting and ball field restoration are being organized and scheduled. The project was funded by individual contributions, as well as the City of Ypsilanti and the Ypsilanti School District purchasing the mulch. The City of Ypsilanti continues to provide grass cutting and trash removal maintenance. One hundred and fifty to two hundred persons have contributed time effort and/or money to the project. They have all been volunteers. City paid staff continue to perform grass cutting and trash removal services for the park. The community has been overwhelming positive about the project. Newspaper and On Line Journals have reported on the project and many positive comments have been received from City officials and neighborhood and community members about how good the park looks. Other neighborhood groups have been joining an adopt-a-park program with their neighborhood parks.
