Play is in progress on OPE’s new community-funded playground

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This fall, students were welcomed back to Ocean Palms Elementary School with a playful surprise — a new playground, known to those on campus as The Otter Park.

This colorful, fun-filled play structure was the end result of the Ocean Palm Elementary PTO’s efforts last school year to collaborate with sponsors, families and community members alike to raise the nearly $150,000 needed to replace the existing structure, which was more than 10 years old.

However, this process wasn’t without the help of the little hands that would eventually swing, slide and climb across the playground. In fact, one student in particular, third-grader Landon Hunter, had a big hand in bringing joy to his school.

After hearing about the plans and fundraising efforts in the works last school year, Hunter created a proposal and presented it to his family’s foundation, the Kneeland Hunter Family Fund. The family donated $15,000 on behalf of Hunter to the project.

School fundraising events, alongside project sponsors such as Flagler Health+, the JT Townsend Foundation, Memorial Hospital Memorial Health, Training for Warriors, Brown & Brown Insurance, John Merrill Homes and Arthur Ruthenberg Homes also helped make The Otter Park possible.