Parents launch campaign to develop new playground in busy Cork town

A group of parents in Carrigaline have come together to raise funds for a new playground for the town.

They are about to host their first major fundraising event, a Family Funday in Carrigaline Community Park this month. The committee’s treasurer, Aimie Hodnett, spoke to us about their plans.

Aimie is a mother of two young boys, Alfie, aged four, and Zack, aged 18 months.

“We’re in the playground a lot with two very energetic young boys,” says Aimie.

We also ‘playground hop’ a lot. We’re at that age bracket where we go off on little day adventures to different playgrounds.

Aimie started to notice that the Carrigaline playground was outdated compared with playgrounds in other areas like Clonakilty, Bandon and Carrigtwohill.

“I was kind of beginning to wonder, why have all these much smaller towns than Carrigaline got much better modern playgrounds?”

Carrigaline is the largest town in Cork, with a population of over 18,000 according to the 2022 census. For a town of its size, Aimie explains that the local playground is not fit for purpose.

“I’ve had a lot of issues with Caroline playground,” says Aimie. “We would mainly be in the junior area of it, and there’s a wooden ramp up that’s always so slippy that the kids would one-by-one just go splat on their bums.”

On the local Facebook community notice board, parents regularly complain about little things that need to be fixed, like a screw loose on a swing. “Kind of dangerous things, to be honest,” says Aimie.

The council have always been very responsive in carrying out repairs, but Aimie believes it would make more sense to get a new playground that is “fit for purpose, rather than constantly fixing it”.

Aimie reached out to local councillors, who encouraged her to get a committee of other parents together and work alongside the council to raise money to get the playground updated.

“So we sat down and formed a committee,” she says. 

We picked a secretary, a treasurer and a chairperson, then we basically started.

As well as Aimie, the committee is made up of Chairperson, Roisine Connelly; Secretary, Claire Bresnan; and active Kelly Molloy and Pat O’Sullivan.

“The biggest challenge is definitely the amount of money we have to raise...it’s a mammoth task,” says Aimie.

They soon learned that the cost of a fully functioning, modern new playground would be in the region of €350,000. Thankfully, €50,000 had already been secured by the council for a playground update before the campaign begun.

The committee are applying for a grant called LEADER from SECAD, which allocates up to €200,000 to projects that promote community wellbeing and outdoor recreation. The rest of the funds will be raised by the committee.

“We’re aiming to only have to fundraise €100,000 through the community, which is still a hell of a lot,” says Aimie.

Community fundraising is not straightforward, and the group have had to set up a not-for-profit organisation to manage funds raised.

“We set up a business, which took a few weeks,” says Aimie. 

It’s called a company limited by guarantee, and we have to set up business bank s to keep it all really transparent and protect ourselves.

Their first fundraising event is a Family Festival in collaboration with the Carrigaline Lions Club.

“The Lions Club have been amazing, and have taken us under their wing,” says Aimie.

The event will take place on Sunday, September 15, from 1-5pm in Carrigaline Community Park, where the playground is located. Local gym KJ Strength and Performance will run a retro Olympics with ‘old school games’ like egg and spoon race, tug of war and sack race, aimed at kids aged 8-12. For younger children, Molly’s Mini Movers will run classes for two to five year olds.

“We have a local DJ coming, so there’ll be dancing. We have face painters. We have the soccer club,” says Aimie.

A local pre-school is going to do a sensory area with tuff trays and bubbles.

There will also be Lego, Duplo and the local toy library to keep children entertained on the day.

The grand finale is a ball run.

“We’re launching a load of balls down a hill, and we’re selling the balls in the run up to it,” Aimie explains. “You win cash prizes if your ball comes first, second or third.”

The ultimate goal is to build a new, fit-for-purpose and inclusive playground for Carrigaline.

“We want to build a really inclusive playground,” says Aimie.

“Carrigaline definitely needs it because we’re home to so many schools with additional needs.”

“Our current playground doesn’t inclusive play at all.

“All modern playgrounds now have a massive area that’s completely wheelchair accessible. The ones we’re looking at, there’s wheelchair trampolines, there’s bucket swings that you have the harness on for kids.”

Aimie highlights that the playground will be a positive thing for the whole town.

“Having a great playground draws so much business to a town,” she says.

Aimie encourages anyone in the area to come along and the Family Festival, and to follow @carrigaline_playground on Instagram and the Carrigaline Playground Facebook page.

Their next big fundraiser will be later this year, when they will raffle off a family trip to Disneyland.