Not many people live in the Southeast Nebraska village of Gilead. But a group of local lifers have found there are enough children in the area to make it worth raising money to build a new playground there - even though it will be located only a block away from the current one.

This playground in the small town of Gilead, situated halfway between Hebron and Fairbury, has occupied this patch of land for decades. But with a disused building on one border and a burgeoning private property on another making it less of a safe space to play, over the last few months a group of people with deep connections to this small community have laid the groundwork to construct a new playground just down the road. 

"The old playground wasn’t safe, and it wasn’t handicap accessible, and so we’re trying to upgrade it, and help support the community, the families, the kids, by putting a safe and more modern playground in for kids," said Cyndi Shinn, one of the members of the Gilead Playground Committee. "People who live in this area might not have kinds but they have grandkids that visit, and several of them were talking about how they felt it wasn’t safe to take their grandkids over to play on that equipment anymore."

The new location won’t be far away, literally just one block over on Gilead’s Main Street. But this new home base would keep the playground on the same road at the community building and put it right across the street from the Pioneers Inn, the town’s well-known longstanding restaurant, a place that employed Cyndi and many of her 15 siblings many years ago.  

The committee has been working with Couch Recreations, which has been part of plenty of similar playground projects around in the area in past, to develop their vision for the new space. That layout includes a couple of spring riding horses, a balance beam, and, one of the priciest items, a slide. On Saturday, using similar looking items they were able to cobble together, the committee set up a simulation of what the final playground setup would look like, if they get enough money to fund the whole thing. 

The group is looking to raise $30,000 through donations, grants and fundraisers, and they’re already halfway to that mark after just a couple of months. In March, the group identified more than 200 different families with ties to this part of the state, even if they don't live there anymore, and sent them letters explaining their proposal, and laying out the cost breakdown for each item. And last month they executed a pancake feed fundraiser which raked in $7,000 - well on their way to the goal of $10,000 raised from each of the three methods.

The first step of the process is to reinforce the existing swing set and move it over to a patch of grass behind the proposed playground spot, facing the Pioneers Inn. Then the rest of the pieces of the playground can be installed: the plan is to order the equipment by November, with a debut of the new playground in March of next year. Down the line, the group has goals to remake the neighboring picnic area, adding in cornhole and horseshoes, and perhaps make the basketball court capable of fielding pickleball. 

The plot of land that the new proposed playground would reside on is currently privately owned, as is the space the picnic table stands on. But the committee is in the process of transferring that land to city ownership, which would help with manage insurance and liability for the new site. And the group has the full blessing of Gilead's governing body, even if there's not much money to spare from the small town's tiny budget to assist with the construction.

"The city is all about it. They’re so glad that we’ve got people willing to step up, give back to the community, and help keep it up," said Mike Dougherty, a member of the playground committee and Gilead's village board.

With the Shinns and the Doughertys at the helm, the organizing committee is made up entirely of people with longtime ties to this area of Southeast Nebraska, a group committed to leaving a positive impact on an area that has meant so much to all of them. 

"Gilead has a special place in my heart because it’s where I grew up, where I have my ties, I went to school out here," said Shinn. "It gave me my work ethic, it gave me my sense of community, my sense of family, which is all very important to this project – it's a project from the heart, because when you make a positive impact on a community like this it will have a lasting impact for years. Maybe Gilead only has 37 people now, but in order for it to grow we have to positive impact in the community."