When it comes to positive change in a community, local residents are often sideline spectators, waiting for someone to take the field and make improvements happen. But that’s not true of a group of Wright City area residents who have formed a new foundation to help drive the changes they want to see, specifically in the city’s parks.

The Wright City Parks Foundation was officially registered as a Missouri nonprofit in February this year. The organization was formed to help raise money for improvements at Wright City’s two (soon to be three) public parks, said member Julia Ramey.

“The main thing we want to get accomplished is to beautify our current parks. There is so much that can be done with our parks,” Ramey said. Things like new playgrounds, landscaping and facility maintenance are some of the big ticket items the group wants to support.

To that end, Ramey said the citizen-run nonprofit has been organizing and hosting fundraising opportunities, although they picked a difficult year to get their start.

“COVID has really put a damper on what we’ve been able to accomplish this year, as far as fundraising. We’re hoping that next spring and summer, we’re able to do some 5Ks. We have a whole list of possible fundraising opportunities, and we’re hoping the community comes out to support,” Ramey said.

To accomplish its mission, the parks foundation needs to work in partnership with the Wright City government. City officials welcomed that partnership, with the late Parks Director Curt Kehoe encouraging interested community members to organize the foundation. In fact, as Ramey explained, having a registered nonprofit involved could actually open the doors to outside community improvement grants that a municipal city government wouldn’t have access to.

But the most important partnership for the parks foundation is with the rest of the community. After Kehoe passed away in March, Ramey said that’s when the foundation saw its first big outpouring of community support and donations.

Kathy Kehoe, Curt’s wife, is part of the parks foundation and said she’s glad to see people contributing to parks that she and Curt gave years of involvement.

“We were very lucky that people respected Curt enough to contribute to something that he put so much work into,” Kathy commented.

She said she hopes the parks foundation can bring light to how much work and expense it takes to upkeep the parks in a way that makes the community proud. Along with donations, Kathy hopes the foundation will encourage volunteer engagement, and especially get a new generation of young people involved with future improvements.

“I think it’s going to help bring interest for people to help bring some of their time to the parks, and some of their talents,” she commented. “It can’t happen without the volunteers, the fundraising. It can’t happen just on the tax base of our small community.”

One piece of community engagement is an open invitation for community members to submit logo designs for the Wright City Parks Foundation. A graphic designer submitted several designs in October, and the foundation expects to select from all the community submissions by the end of this year.

For more information about participating in the parks foundation, go online to the Wright City Parks Foundation Facebook page, or email wc4parksfoundation@gmail.com.