Shade Covers Project Half Way Funded!  “Matching” Grant Opportunity Until March 1, 2025

The Friends of the Soda Springs City Park are proud to announce that they are half way to their goal of fundraising $45,000 to pay for professionally engineered and designed shade covers that will be welded to the existing swing sets at the Maverik Caribou CommUNITY playground. With the generous support of area residents and businesses, the group was able to put down half the money needed for the project as a deposit for materials to be purchased by Blaze Sign, the local company building and installing the covers this Spring. 

Planned installation will take place in March, depending on the weather. The goal is to install the shade covers prior to a time when children will be playing on the playground, and while the ground is still frozen so that Blaze Sign can avoid making big ruts in the grass on the west side of the playground’s perimeter fencing as they deliver and install prefabricated metal structures to weld them in place on-site. The goal is to complete fundraising efforts by April 1, 2025 to pay the bill in its entirety shortly after the covers are installed. 

Some of the recent donations that brought FOTSSCP across “the line” to the halfway mark are: Gibbs Farms ($500), London Drug ($500), Orion ($2,500), and Caribou Medical Center ($2,500), Portneuf Valley Family Center, Wayne and Dori Clegg, Abbie Tirrell, Lynette Anderson, Jan and Tookie Barnes, Bob and Marilyn Kukachka, Beta Sigma Phi, John and Marilyn Lee, ACE Hardware, Straight Forward Auto, Daniel and Amanda Larsen, Simmons Family Farm, Preston and Noelia Christensen, and M&R Sports. 

The Friends are also applying for several grants to gather additional funds to bring this dream to fruition, including: US Bank grant, Idaho Community Foundation for the IFFT grant, Valley Wide Cooperative & Land O’Lakes grant, Rocky Mountain Power Foundation grant, and the Intermountain Gas grant. 

Modern Woodmen of America, an insurance company located in Pocatello, has generously agreed to offer the Friends a “matching” grant opportunity that will go from February 1st-28th, up to a maximum donation of $2,500. Donations received from the public during the month of February will be “matched’ by this company, essentially doubling the value of your contribution. 

If finances allow, the Friends plan to not only install metal shade structures over the existing swing sets, but they are also considering using any additional fundraised money beyond the $45,000 goal, to potentially plant some trees around the perimeter fencing alongside additional picnic tables, to provide more sources of natural shade, beauty and functionality to the playground. This portion of the plans would still require approval from the City of Soda Springs and could possibly be considered “Phase 2” of this shade covers project sometime in the future. 

If you would like to join in this important cause to provide shaded playtime for area children this Summer, please reach out to Laura Lind 208-604-0885 to make a donation!