Teens seek cash to build park as senior project
What started as a senior project has blossomed into two teens’ efforts to build a new fitness park in Delray Beach.
Christelle Singh and Talia Vessal, both seniors in Atlantic High School’s International Baccalaureate engineering program, built three-dimensional schematics for an outdoor fitness center at Delray’s Barwick Park, on the corner of Lake Ida and Barwick roads and surrounded by homes.
“I think we’ll definitely get an ‘A’,” Singh, 18, quipped after pitching plans for the park with her partner Vessal, 17, to the Delray Beach city commission in mid-December.
T h e y n e e d $ 5 5,0 0 0 t o $88,000, depending on what material they plan to use, to build the fitness park. The money would cover the cost of equipment and installation.
The senior project didn’t require actually creating a fixture, only the schematics for one.
But between college applications and planning for prom, the teens decided they had the time and drive to build a park.
“We wanted to do this for our community,” Vessal said.
They’ve raised nearly $1,500 through an online GoFundMe campaign, many donations of which have come from hopeful residents who live near Barwick Park. Now, the teens are going to different departments of the city to seek money.
They have the support of Delray’s Parks and Recreation Department, which would oversee the fitness park’s development should money be secured.
“I was so impressed by them, they walked in with a scale drawing (of the project),” Suzanne Davis, head of the cit y’s parks department, told city leaders at a Dec. 13 meeting. The department had been seeking similar plans, but the budget wouldn’t allow it.
Barwick Park has two playgrounds, a quarter-mile trail for walking or biking and acres of flat green space.
The girls want to place outdoor fitness equipment that would be accessible to any passers-by.
“Before deciding what we wanted to do, we thought ‘What does Delray Beach not have?’” Vessal said. “It came to us — an outdoor gym.”
Neighboring Boca Raton has an outdoor fitness center at Patch Reef Park. It gives residents who don’t have financial access to gyms, access to exercise equipment.
The park would also bring a little attention to western Delray Beach, Vessal said.
“East Delray gets all the attention,” she said.
The two hope to raise the money and build the park by May — graduation.