Woodbridge brings the library to the park
Today, Woodbridge Community Park is a beautiful place where families can enjoy barbecues, play a game of horseshoes, shoot some hoops and watch kids on the playground — but it wasn’t always that way.
Because of the determination of members of the community to turn the area around, the park has gone from a gang-infested and drug-ridden park to a family friendly place. Recently, community members have continued their efforts by inserting a book box in the park.
The box serves as a free neighborhood book exchange where anyone passing by can take a book to read or leave a book for someone else to find.
According to resident Mary Avanti, the idea came from Woodbridge Municipal Advisory Council member Donald Brown, and initially she and Brown took on the project. However, Brown became busy and Avanti took on the project herself.
“What we created was this box and it came from the help of lots of people in the community,” she said. “It shows you what the community can do when you come together.”
The box is a recycled newspaper vending machine donated by the Lodi News-Sentinel. Avanti took the box to Daniel Barriga at Touch of Class Auto Body and Paint shop in Lodi and his daughter Samantha painted it and gave it a Dr. Seuss theme. A quote from Dr. Seuss adorns the front of the box. The quote reads “The more that you read the more things you will know. The more that you learn the more places you’ll go.”
Avanti sad books have been donated by several members of the community, including the Elks Lodge.
Avanti gave a special thanks to former San Joaquin County Parks and Recreation Director Duncan Jones for allowing them to pursue the project.
According to Avanti, when she first moved to the area 13 years ago, she decided to take her grandchildren to the park and was heartbroken to see broken syringe needles, broken bottles, holes in the playground equipment and a broken swing set.
“This park at one time was drug-infested and gang-ridden,” Avanti said. “You would not want to come to this park. There wasn’t a place for the children to play, no benches or anything.”
She and a friend, Dolores Westerterp, along with other members of the community, decided it was time to take back their park and started renovating the area one improvement at a time.
It wasn’t always an easy process. Avanti recalled when a new piece of equipment was burned down a month after being installed. Through adversity, Avanti and the other community members remained determined to turn the park around.
“We continued to fight the resistance and made the park what is today,” she said.
With the help of former county supervisor Jack Sieglock, the community was able to put the park back together again, Avanti said.
The renovations included installing picnic tables and barbecue pits, a water fountain, a basketball court, new playground equipment and light poles in the park.